But I thought mebbe I'd been enough trouble already." It was not entirely the confession itself, but the self-accusing tone in which it had been uttered that brought a smile to her face.
"All the same," she said, "you are to do as I tell you." He smiled as he dropped into the chair on the porch.

It was an odd experience for him.

Never before in his life had anyone adopted toward him an air of even partial proprietorship.

He had been accustomed to having people--always men--meet him upon a basis of equality, and if a man had adopted toward him the tone that she had employed there would have been an instant severing of diplomatic relations and a beginning of hostilities.
But this situation was odd--a woman had ordered him to do a certain thing and he was obeying, realizing that in doing so he was violating a principle, though conscious of a strange satisfaction.

He knew that he had promised the Two Diamond manager, and he was convinced that, in spite of the pain in his foot, he was well enough to ride.