He saw that
her skin was a golden brown from life in the open outdoors, that she had
upon the heels of her boots a pair of tiny, sharp rowelled spurs, that a
riding quirt hung from her right wrist by its rawhide thong, that her
cheeks were a little flushed as though from excitement but that she knew
the trick of forbidding her eyes to tell what her excitement was. He saw
that her throat, where her neck scarf fell loosely away from it, was
very round and white. He saw that while her grey riding habit covered
her body it hid none of her body's grace and strength and slender
youthfulness.
While his eyes left hers to note these things her eyes had been as busy,
running from the man's close cropped dark hair to his mud-spattered
boots. And there came into her look just a hint of admiration which the
man did not see as she in her swift examination noted the breadth of
shoulder, the straight tallness of him, the clean, supple, sinewy form
which his loose attire of soft shirt, unbuttoned vest grey with dust,
and shaggy chaps, black and much worn, in no way concealed.
"I have come," he was saying now to Templeton, speaking abruptly
although his voice was as gentle and low-toned and pleasant as when he
had spoken with the cashier, "three days ahead of time.
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