"As if any fellow wouldn't give his boots to do a little job like that for you!" She seemed to take no notice of the covert compliment.

In fact, she already took it as a matter of course that Jefferson was very fond of her.
Did she love him?
She hardly knew.

Certainly she thought more of him than of any other man she knew and she readily believed that she could be with him for the rest of her life and like him better every day.

Then, too, they had become more intimate during the last few days.

This trouble, this unknown peril had drawn them together.