The small pioneer towns before the railroads must have viewed incomers, particularly those with 'permission' to move on in a few days, as exotic indeed - not bound up by the unspoken rules that grow-up in such places as underpinnings for such an isolated life. But there is a clear sense here of a man who's almost forgotten what it is to be human, to be happy, and who deliberately smothers, cuts short, what is offered because he dare not glimpse happiness too long. It is only right that his hard, protective shell should be shattered by someone who doesn't set much store by rules that hobble those who should be free. Very atmospheric, but also very touching.