He had felt averse to putting her at odds with her conventional self, of inviting unfavorable criticism of himself; dimly, because instinct rather than cold analysis impelled him.

What he had told her was the sum total of his formulated ideas.
"Well, I'm ready to go now, since you insist on my being conventional.
I did not come West with the expectation of being tied to a book of etiquette, Mr.Green.But I find one can't get away from it after all.
Still, living on one's own claim twelve miles from a town is something!" "That's a whole lot, I should say," Andy assured her politely, and refrained from asking her what she expected to do with that eighty acres of arid land.

He turned his tired horse and rode alongside her, prudently waiting for her to give the key.
"I'm not supposed to be away over here, you know," she began when they were near the foot of the bluff up which the trail wound seeking the easiest slopes and avoiding boulders and deep cuts.

"I'm supposed to be just out riding, and the girls expected me back by sundown.

But I've been trying and trying to find some of you Flying U boys--as they call you men who have taken so much land--on your claims.