You'll be gettin' married out there, won't
you?"
"You are--quite wrong," said Nell, who all the while Mrs. Wentz was
speaking grew rosier and rosier. "We're not anything---"
Then Nell hesitated and finally ceased speaking. She saw that
denials or explanations were futile; the simple woman had seen the
kiss, and formed her own conclusions. During the few days Nell had
spent at Fort Pitt, she had come to understand that the dwellers on
the frontier took everything as a matter of course. She had seen
them manifest a certain pleasure; but neither surprise, concern, nor
any of the quick impulses so common among other people. And this was
another lesson Nell took to heart. She realized that she was
entering upon a life absolutely different from her former one, and
the thought caused her to shrink from the ordeal. Yet all the
suggestions regarding her future home; the stories told about
Indians, renegades, and of the wild border-life, fascinated her.
These people who had settled in this wild region were simple, honest
and brave; they accepted what came as facts not to be questioned,
and believed what looked true. Evidently the fur-trader's wife and
her female neighbors had settled in their minds the relation in
which the girl stood to Joe.
This latter reflection heightened Nell's resentment toward her
lover.
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