“But how could she judge, Molly?  How could she judge?” he pleaded “She was ill, she wasn’t herself, you must know it.  All men are not alike.  Didn’t I fight her battles more than once, when you were a child?”

“I know, I know,” she answered gratefully, “and I love you for it.  That’s why I don’t mind telling you what I’ve never told a single one of the others.  I haven’t any heart, Abel, that’s the truth.  It’s all play to me, and I like the game sometimes and sometimes I hate it.  Yet, whether I like it or hate it, I always go on because I can’t help it.  Your mother once said I had a devil that drives me on and perhaps she was right—­it may be that devil that drives me on and won’t let me stop even when I’m tired, and it all bores me.  The rector thinks that I’ll marry him and turn pious and take to Dorcas societies, and Jim Halloween thinks I’ll marry him and grow thrifty and take to turkey raising—­and you believe in the bottom of your heart that in the end I’ll fall into your arms and find happiness with your mother.  But you’re wrong—­all—­all—­and I shan’t do any of the things you expect of me.  I am going to stay here as long as grandfather lives, so I can take care of him, and then I’ll run off somewhere to the city and trim hats for a living.  When I was at school in Applegate I trimmed hats for all of the pupils.”

“Oh, Molly, Molly, I’ll not give you up!  Some day you’ll see things differently.”

“Never—­never.  Now, I’ve warned you and it isn’t my fault if you keep on after this.”

“But you do like me a little, haven’t you said so?”

Her frown deepened.

“Yes, I do like you—­a little.”

“Then I’ll keep on hoping, anyhow.”

Her smile came back, but this time it had grown mocking.

“No, you mustn’t hope,” she answered, “at least,” she corrected provokingly, “you mustn’t hope—­too hard.”

“I’ll hope as hard as the devil, darling—­and, Molly, if you marry me, you know, you won’t have to live with my mother.”

“I like that, even though I’m not going to marry you.”

“Come here,” he drew her toward the door, “and I’ll show you where our house will stand.  Do you see that green rise of ground over the meadow?”

“Yes, I see it,” her tone was gentler.

“I’ve chosen that site for a home,” he went on, “and I’m saving a good strip of pine—­you can see it over there against the horizon.  I’ve half a mind to take down my axe and cut down the biggest of the trees this afternoon!”

If his ardour touched her there was no sign of it in the movement with which she withdrew herself from his grasp.

“You’d better finish your grinding.  There isn’t the least bit of a hurry,” she returned with a smile.

“If you’ll go with me, Molly, you may take your choice and I’ll cut the tree down for you.”

“But I can’t, Abel, because I’ve promised Mr. Mullen to visit his mother.”