Part 51 (1/2)
HOME
A green hummock and the blue waters of Chesapeake Bay. Sunlight over the gra.s.s, sunlight over the sea, touching white sails there. A woman sat on the hummock, a man lay at her feet.
”Jeanne, you are sitting there almost exactly as I have often sat for hours when I was a youngster, with my chin in my hands, and my elbows on my knees.”
”Am I, dear?”
”Little wife, what are you thinking of?”
”Just my happiness and you. When you used to sit here you never thought of me.”
”No, dear.”
”And yonder, all the time, I was waiting for you.”
”There came a time, Jeanne, when I believed this spot could never be dear to me again, when I thought it could never again be home.”
”And now, Richard?”
”Now, my darling, I am as a man who is almost too richly blessed. In this world I have found paradise.”
”Of course that isn't really true,” she answered, ”but I like to hear you say it.”
”Jeanne dear, there is only one regret. I wish my mother could be here to see you.”
”She knows, Richard, never doubt that,” Jeanne answered. ”When I think of you, I often think of her too. I am here, in her place. Her boy has become my husband. I am very thankful to her for my good, brave husband.”
He rose to his knees, put his arm round her, and kissed her.