Then, with a woman's quick intuition, she understood that coquetries
were lost on this borderman, and, with a smile, got the better of her
embarrassment and humiliation by telling the truth.

"I wanted to ask a favor of you, and I'm a little afraid."

She spoke with girlish shyness, which increased as he stared at her.

"Why--why do you look at me so?"

"There's a lake over yonder which the Shawnees say is haunted by a
woman they killed," he replied quietly. "You'd do for her spirit, so
white an' beautiful in the silver moonlight."

"So my white dress makes me look ghostly," she answered lightly,
though deeply conscious of surprise and pleasure at such an unexpected
reply from him. This borderman might be full of surprises. "Such a
time as I had bringing my dresses out here! I don't know when I can
wear them. This is the simplest one."

"An' it's mighty new an' bewilderin' for the border," he replied with
a smile in his eyes.

"When these are gone I'll get no more except linsey ones," she said
brightly, yet her eyes shone with a wistful uncertainty of the future.

"Will you be happy here?"

"I am happy. I have always wanted to be of some use in the world. I
assure you, Master Zane, I am not the butterfly I seem. I have worked