Elvine nodded. Her dark eyes were warmly returning his smile.
"I like that," she said simply. And she meant it.
The blood mounted to the man's brow. He felt that he had forced her to
make the admission, and regarded his act with some shame.
"Say, don't feel you've got to say that," he said earnestly. "You
mustn't just think I'm asking your applause. These are simple facts
which I can't deny. I'd like to feel the sun just rises and sets
around my work, but if I did I'd be the same sort of fool as those
Pharisee fellers in the Bible. Bud's a bully feller, and I'll owe him
more than I can ever hand him back just as long as I live."
Elvine was comparing this man's big generosity with her understanding
of most of the men she had ever known. She was thinking, too, of days
long since passed, and events which even a wide distance of time had
not succeeded in rendering mellow.
She sighed. Somehow "Honest Jeff" was hurting her in a way she would
never have believed any man could hurt her--now.
"This Bud Tristram's daughter--Nan.
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