She had tried to cease thinking of "The Shield;" keeping away from him, dreading to find true what she only suspected.

She did not dare acknowledge even to herself that she loved a cousin.
But when the Shield gave her his handsomest trinkets; when he followed her when she left her laughing and noisy companions to sit beside the still waters--when he told her that she was the most beautiful girl among the Dahcotahs--when he whispered her that he loved her dearly; and would marry her in spite of mothers, grandmothers, customs and religion too--then she found that her cousin was dearer to her than all the world--that she would gladly die with him--she could never live without him.
But still, she would not promise to marry him.

What would her friends say?
and the spirits of the dead would torment her, for infringing upon the sacred customs of her tribe.

The Shield used many arguments, but all in vain.

She told him she was afraid to marry him, but that she would never marry any one else.