After that he ate his dinner with relish, saddled and rode away to where the round-up was camped, his manner utterly practical and lacking the faintest tinge of romance.

As to his thoughts--he kept them jealously to himself.
He did not even glimpse Miss Bridger for three months or more.

He was full of the affairs of the Double-Crank; riding in great haste to the ranch or to town, hurrying back to the round-up and working much as he used to work, except that now he gave commands instead of receiving them.

For they were short-handed that summer and, as he explained to Dill, he couldn't afford to ride around and look as important as he felt.
"Yuh wait, Dilly, till we get things running the way I want 'em," he encouraged on one of his brief calls at the ranch.

"I was kinda surprised to find things wasn't going as smooth as I used to think; when yuh haven't got the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, yuh don't realize what a lot of things need to be done.