Community life -- West (U.S.) -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; West (U.S.) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
"I'm not sorry to go home. But I'm sorry to leave the Hills." He looked
wistfully through the twilight toward Mary's slender figure, outlined
against the window. The three men caught the glance, and began at once
to talk in low tones to each other. In a moment they went out. Somehow,
on returning from the land of visions, Ben found that the world had
moved, and that one of the results of the movement was that many things
were taken for granted by the little community of four who surrounded
him. It was as though the tangle had unravelled quietly while he slept.
She leaned toward him shyly, and whispered something to his ear. He
smiled contentedly.
They talked then long and comfortably in the dusk--about how the
Leslies had written the letter, how much trouble she had taken to
conceal her real identity, and all the rest.
"I sent Bill Lawton up to warn your camp the first day I met you," said
she.
"Why, I remember!" he cried. "He was there when I got back."
And they talked on of their many experiences, in the fashion of lovers,
and how they had come to care for each other, and when.
"I made up my mind it was so foolish a joke," she confessed, "that I
determined to tell you all about it. You remember I had something to
tell you at the Pioneer's Picnic? That was it. But then you remember
the girl in the train, and how, when she looked at us, you turned
away?"
"I remember that well enough," replied Bennington. "But what has that
to do with it?"
"It was a perfectly natural thing to do, dearest. I see that plainly
enough now. But it hurt me a little that you should be ashamed of me as
a Western girl, and I made up my mind to test you."
"Why, I wasn't thinking of that at all," cried Bennington. "I was just
ashamed of my clothes. I never thought of you!"
She reached out and patted his hand. "I'm glad to hear that, Ben dear,
after all. It did hurt. And I was so foolish. I thought if you were
ashamed of me, you would never stand the thought of the Lawtons. So I
did not tell you the truth then, but resolved to test you in that way."
"Foolish little girl!" said he tenderly. "But it came out all right,
didn't it?"
"Yes," she sighed, with a happy gesture of the hands. They fell silent.
"I want you to tell me something, dear," said Bennington after a while.
"You needn't unless you want to, but I've thought about it a great
deal."
"I will tell you, Ben, anything in the world. We ought to be frank with
each other now, don't you think so?"
"I don't know as I ought to say anything about it, after all," he
hesitated, evidently embarrassed. "But, Mary, you know you have hinted
a little at it yourself. You remember you said something once about
losing faith, and being made hard, and----"
She took both his hands in hers and drew them closely to her breast.
Although he could not see her eyes against the dusk, he knew that she
was looking at him steadily.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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