Page:Hard-pan; a story of bonanza fortunes (IA hardpanbonanza00bonnrich).pdf/167

Rh "Any man would have done what the colonel did. It 's nothing of the least importance."

"Perhaps not to you," she answered in a hardly audible voice; "but to me!"

He looked away and tried to speak lightly:

"It is of no importance whatever to me, and I don't see why it should be of any to you."

"Oh, Mr. Gault, what do you think I am, that you should say that?"

"A foolish girl who takes a trifling matter too seriously," he answered quickly.

"No—a woman who has been hurt and humiliated. It may have been of no importance to you that you were giving us the clothes we wore and the food we ate—but oh! to me—"

Her voice broke, and she turned her face away.

He made an impatient movement with his head.

"Come, don't let 's talk about that any more. You 're not yourself. Besides, whatever insignificant matter you 're worrying about was not of your doing."

"No," she said, turning on him passionately, "but the responsibility rests on me; for whatever my father may have done that was wrong or foolish was for me. There is an excuse for him. You—other people—outsiders—don't know. He has n't wanted these things for him-