"There's a Hollow--where--" (Nella-Rose paused) "where the laurel tangle
is like a jungle--"
Truedale broke in: "I know it! There's a little stream running through
it, and--trails."
"Yes!" Nella-Rose leaned back and showed her white teeth alluringly.
"I--I should not--permit this!" For a moment Truedale broke through the
thin ice of delight that was luring him to unknown danger and fell upon
the solid rock of conservatism.
"Why?" The eyes, so tenderly innocent, confronted him appealingly.
"There are nuts there and--and other things! You are just teasing;
you'll let me--show you the way about?"
The girl was all child now and made Truedale ashamed to hold her to any
absurd course that his standards acknowledged but that hers had never
conceived.
"Of course. I'll be glad to have you for a guide. Jim White has no ideas
about nuts and things--he goes to the woods to kill something; he's
there now. I dare say mere are other things in the mountains
besides--prey?"
Nella-Rose nodded.
"Let's sit by the fire!" she suddenly said. "I--I want to tell
you--something, and then I must go."
The lack of shyness and reserve might so easily have become
boldness--but they did not! The girl was like a creature of the wilds
which, knowing no reason for fear, was revelling in heretofore
unsuspected enjoyment. Truedale pulled the couch to the hearth for
Nella-Rose, piled the pillows on one end and then seated himself on the
stump of a tree which served as a settee.
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