United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction; Villages -- Fiction
Perhaps no one in Green Valley was so generously remembered as the
young minister. But though every one of the many gifts that came
pleased him he was strangely unhappy and restless. Invitations as
usual had poured in on him but he had chosen to spend the day with
Grandma Wentworth. And yet, though he was glad to be with her, his
thoughts strayed off to a certain gray day in the fall when he ran down
a hill with a girl's hand in his. He remembered the surge of joy that
had rushed through him when he got her safely into his storm-proof
house and banged shut the door on the stormy world without.
He thought of the hour they spent in silence before the fire that
roared exultantly as the storm tore with angry fingers at the doors and
windows. That, he now felt, was the most perfect hour of his life.
His mind was struggling to understand these memories, these strange new
emotions. He had a queer feeling that something wonderful was waiting
just outside his reach, something was waiting for his recognition.
He was standing in Grandma Wentworth's dining room, looking out the
window at the winter landscape. Grandma was in the kitchen seeing to
the dinner, for she was to have quite a party--Roger and David, Mrs.
Brownlee and Jocelyn, Cynthia's son and his man Timothy.
Idly Cynthia's son watched the rest of the party coming through the
little path that led to Grandma's door. He saw them all plainly
through the curtains and plants that screened him. Jocelyn and David
came last. David made a great to-do about stamping the snow off his
feet, taking pains to stand between Jocelyn and the door. Then, just
as Jocelyn was about to slip past him, the minister saw David reach out
and sweep the girl into his arms. And Cynthia's son could not help but
see the glory in the boy's eyes as the girl's wild-rose face turned up
to meet her lover's kiss.
For blind seconds John Roger Churchill Knight crashed through space.
And then the next minute he was living in a shining world that was all
roses and skylarks and dew. He laughed, for all at once he knew what
ailed him; he knew that the wonderful, tantalizing something that had
so steadily eluded him, tormented him was--just Nan, the girl of the
gray day, the log fire and the storm.
He was the maddest, gladdest man in all Green Valley that day until he
remembered that he had sent Nan no gift, not even a greeting or a word
of thanks for the beautiful collie dog she had sent him. He stood in
horrified amazement at his stupidity. Jocelyn had been showing them
her new ring. And Nan, his sweetheart, had not even a Christmas card.
Cynthia's son went to the telephone but even as he raised the receiver
he somehow guessed what the answer would be.
Nan's father answered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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