"Yes, more than ever. In the fall while you were gone, I used to go down to the river nearly every afternoon, and watch the color spread over the fields. There's something about a sunset in the late autumn that's unlike those at any other time of year--have you ever noticed? It's not rosy, but a deep, deep golden yellow--spreading over the dull, bare earth like the glory from the diadem of a saint--one of those gray Fathers of early Italy, for instance." "I know what you mean--but they seem to me more like the glory that comes into any dull, bare life," said Austin,--"the kind of glory you've been to me. It worries me to hear you say you want to go away to 'think things over.' What is there to think over--if you're sure you care?" "There are lots of details to a thing of this sort." "A thing of what sort?" "Oh, Austin, how stupid you are! A--a marriage, of course." "I thought all that was necessary were two willing victims, a license, and a parson." "Well, there's a good deal more to it than that. Besides, your family would surely guess if I stayed here. I want to keep it just to ourselves for a little while." "I see. It's all right, dear. Take all the time you want." "What would you tell them, anyway?" she went on lightly,--"that I proposed to you, and that you accepted me? Or, to be more exact, that you didn't accept me, but said, 'No, no, no!' most decidedly, and went on repeating it, with variations, until I threw myself into your arms? It was an awful blow to my pride--considering that heretofore I've certainly had my fair share of attention, and even a little more than that--to have to do _all_ the love-making, and I'm certainly not going to go brag about it--' This time the conversation really did get interrupted, for Austin would not for one instant submit to such a "garbling of statistics" and took the quickest means in his power to put an end to it." He had the wisdom, however, greater, perhaps, than might have been expected, not to oppose any of her wishes just then, and it was Sylvia herself who at the last minute felt her heart beginning to fail her, and called him to the farther end of the station platform, on the pretext of consulting him about some baggage. "I don't see how I can say good-bye--in just an ordinary way," she whispered, "and I'm beginning to miss you dreadfully already. If I can't stand it, away from you, you must arrange to come down for at least a day or two." It was beginning to sprinkle, and, taking her umbrella, he opened it and handed it to her, leaning forward and kissing her as soon as she was hidden by it.