For the single instant during which Nell stood transfixed, as if with surprise, and looking up at Joe, she was dumb.  Usually the girl was ready with sharp or saucy words and impulsive in her movements; but now the bewilderment of being kissed, particularly within view of the trader’s wife, confused her.  Then she heard voices, and as Joe turned away with a smile on his face, the unusual warmth in her heart was followed by an angry throbbing.

Joe’s tall figure stood out distinctly as he leisurely strolled toward the incoming wagon-train without looking backward.  Flashing after him a glance that boded wordy trouble in the future, she ran into the cabin.

As she entered the door it seemed certain the grizzled frontiersman sitting on the bench outside had grinned knowingly at her, and winked as if to say he would keep her secret.  Mrs. Wentz, the fur-trader’s wife, was seated by the open window which faced the fort; she was a large woman, strong of feature, and with that calm placidity of expression common to people who have lived long in sparsely populated districts.  Nell glanced furtively at her and thought she detected the shadow of a smile in the gray eyes.

“I saw you and your sweetheart makin’ love behind the willow,” Mrs. Wentz said in a matter-of-fact voice.  “I don’t see why you need hide to do it.  We folks out here like to see the young people sparkin’.  Your young man is a fine-appearin’ chap.  I felt certain you was sweethearts, for all you allowed you’d known him only a few days.  Lize Davis said she saw he was sweet on you.  I like his face.  Jake, my man, says as how he’ll make a good husband for you, and he’ll take to the frontier like a duck does to water.  I’m sorry you’ll not tarry here awhile.  We don’t see many lasses, especially any as pretty as you, and you’ll find it more quiet and lonesome the farther West you get.  Jake knows all about Fort Henry, and Jeff Lynn, the hunter outside, he knows Eb and Jack Zane, and Wetzel, and all those Fort Henry men.  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.