Why couldn't I put her on my horse and carry her off and keep her always?
I wondered crazily.

That was what I wanted to do.
"Do you ever mean what you say, I wonder ?" she mused, biting her pencil-point like a schoolgirl when she can't remember how many times three goes into twenty-seven.
"Sometimes.

Sometimes I mean more." I set my teeth, closed my eyes--mentally--and plunged, insanely, not knowing whether I should come to the surface alive or knock my head on a rock and stay down.

"For instance, when I say that some day I shall carry you off and find a preacher to marry us, and that we shall live happily ever after, whether you want to or not, because I shall _make_ you, I mean every word of it--and a lot more." That was going some, I fancy! I was so scared at myself I didn't dare breathe.

I kept my eyes fixed desperately on the mouth of the pass, all golden-green in the sunshine; and I remember that my teeth were so tight together that they ached afterward.
The point of her pencil came off with a snap.