“I'd soon crawl down a rabid badger's hole as crawl into your bedroll.”

“Had he forgotten all that had transpired between them in that other hidey-hole?”

“There's a big ruckus under way down at the Rusty Plug. The miners are really tearin' the bone out.”

“Coyness wasn't the only thing Ardetta had been aggressive about and he'd had to summon up all his southern chivalry to turn her down gently. When he'd relented and obliged her with a kiss, she'd been on him like ugly on an ape. He'd narrowly escaped her clutches with his honor intact.”

“She was full of flaws which with time would evolve into full-blown personality defects.”

“They could no more reconcile to a mutually satisfying life than a donkey could sprout wings and fly.”

“Never again could he see a dogwood blossom or eat a fish without thinking of her.”