Arizona -- Fiction; Grand Canyon (Ariz.) -- Fiction; Western stories
Jonas looked up from the potatoes he was peeling, as Enoch came into
the kitchen. "Jonas, I've just had a reply from the wire I sent Abbott
this morning. The President wants me at once. Will you go up to the
hotel and arrange for transportation out of here tonight? Remember, I
don't want it known who I am."
"Yes, Mr. Secretary!" exclaimed Jonas. Hastily wiping his hands, he
murmured to Na-che, as Enoch turned away: "No trip down Bright Angel,
Na-che. Ain't it a shame to think that love ring--" But Enoch heard
no more.
Diana stood before the fire in the gathering twilight. "Is there
anything Dad or I can do to facilitate your start, Enoch?"
"Nothing, Diana. Jonas is a past master in this sort of thing, and he
prefers to do it all himself. You and I have only to think of each
other until I have to leave."
He took Diana's face between his hands and gazed at it hungrily. "How
beautiful, how beautiful you are!" he said, his rich voice dying in a
sigh.
"Don't sigh, Enoch!" exclaimed Diana. "We must not make this last
moment sad. You are going back into the arena, fit for the fight.
That makes me very, very glad. And while you have told me nothing as
to your intentions concerning Brown, I know that your decision, when it
comes, will be right."
"I don't know what that decision will be, Diana. I have given my whole
mind to you for many days. But I shall do nothing rash, nor without
long thought. My dearest, I wish I could make you understand what you
mean to me. I had thought when we were in the Canyon to-morrow I could
tell you something of my boyhood, so that you would understand me, and
what you mean to me. But all that must remain unsaid. Perhaps it's
just as well."
Enoch sighed again and, turning to the table, picked up the flat
package he had laid there on entering the room.
"This is my diary, Diana," placing it in her hands. "Be as gentle as
you can in judging me, as you read it. If we were to be married, I
think I would not have let you see it, but as it is, I am giving to you
the most intimate thing in my possession, and I feel somehow as if in
so doing I am tying myself to you forever."
Diana clasped the book to her heart, and laid her burning cheek against
Enoch's. But she did not speak. Enoch held her slender body against
his and the firelight flickered on the two motionless forms.
"Diana," said Enoch huskily, "you are going on with your work, as
earnestly as ever, are you not?"
"Not quite so earnestly because, after I reach the East again, Minetta
Lane will be my job."
"Oh, Diana, I beg of you, don't soil your hands with that!" groaned
Enoch.
"I must! I must, Enoch!" Then Diana's voice broke and again the room
was silent. They stood clinging to each other until Frank's voice was
heard in the rear of the house.
"It's an infernal shame, I say. President or no President!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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