The novelty of her presence on the ranch was still fresh enough to fill his thoughts with her slim attractiveness.

Town hadn't spoiled her, he thought glowingly.

She was the same good little pal,--only she was growing up pretty fast, now.

She was a young lady already.
So, thinking of her with the brightening of spirits which is the first symptom of the world-old emotion called love, Lite rounded the eastern arm of the bluff and came within sight of the coulee spread before him, shaped like the half of a huge platter with a high rim of bluff on three sides.
His first involuntary glance was towards the house, and there was unacknowledged expectancy in his eyes.

But he did not see Jean, nor any sign that she had returned.