dangers you fancy are threatening me. If it is from men, be at ease!
I can put the fear of God into them! It is the sweet and gentle girl
you would like to have that is in danger there!"

"I'm afraid you'll have to go back," said Gaviller.

Colina drew her beautiful straight brows together. "You make me think
you simply want to get me off your hands," she said sullenly.

Gaviller shook his head. "You know I love to have you with me," he
said simply.

"Then consider me a fixture!" said Colina serenely. "This is my
country!" she went on enthusiastically. "It suits me. I like its
uglinesses and its hardships, too! I hated it in the city. Do you
know what they called me?--the wild Highlander!

"Up here everybody understands my wildness, and thinks none the worse
of me. It was different in the city--you've always lived in the north,
you old innocent--you don't know! Men, for instance, in society they
have a curious logic. They seem to think if a girl is natural she must
be bad! Sometimes they acted on that assumption--"

"What did I tell you!" cried her father. "Men are the same everywhere!"

"Well," said Colina, smiling to herself, "they didn't get very far.
And no man ever tried it twice. Up here--how different. I don't have
to think of such things."

"I have to think of settling you in life," said Gaviller gloomily.