Part 17 (1/2)
The e of irl as in a flood She was pale as a ghost, and her hands trembled when she stretched them out ”Harold,” she murmured unsteadily She tried to smile ”Is it really you, Harold?”
”It's I,” he answered ”We've coether--at last”
The words seemed to rally her scattered faculties The dreamlike quality of the scene at once dissolved Utter and bewildering surprise is never an e endure; its very quality , cool sense within her had begun to accept the fact of his presence
Instinctively her eyes swept his face and form All doubt was past: this uely shocked Her first ie: that the years had soes that no living creature ed but little He had worn just such a ed: for the e repelled her and estranged her His h powerful, had lost some of its youthful tri instant, that there was a brutality in his expression that she had never seen before But at once the reaction caed hiht with the cold and the snoith all the primeval forces of nature: he had sith of Bill's face was not to be seen in his Nevertheless he was clean, stalwart, and his embarrassment was a credit to hiinning of the reaction that in a rasped her and held her The truth suddenly flaht: that Harold Lounsbury had returned to her arms Her search was over She had won He stood before her, alive and well He had come back to her
Her effort had been croith success
He was her old lover, in the flesh Of course she would experience soes; but they were nothing that should keep her froinia,” he cried ”My God, I can't believe it's you!”
She reularly cool in the ardor of this cry ”Why didn't you write?” she asked ”Why didn't you co hirounds now He had prepared for just these queries, on the long walk to the cabin
”I did write,” he cried ”Why didn't you answer?”
The words calib to his lips She stared at him in amazement ”You did--you say you wrote to me?” she asked him, deeply moved
”Wrote? I wrote a dozen times And I never received a word--except from Jules Nathan”
”But Jules Nathan--Jules Nathan is dead!”
”He is?” But Harold's surprise was feigned This was one piece of news that had trickled through the wastes to him,--of the death of Jules Nathan, a man known to them both It was safe to have heard from him The contents of the letter could never be verified ”He told ot an answer--that you were engaged to be otten inia held hard on her faculties and balanced his words She had known Chicagothe six years that she had moved in the most exalted social circles of her own city The story held water, even if she had been inclined to doubt it She kneas always easy for an engageirl was involved ”I didn't get your letters,” she told hiht so----”
”And you didn't get ed e in a letter I never heard from you after that”
”Then it's all been a otten----”
”I thought you'd married some one else I couldn't believe it when Bill came toover toward the Yuga And noe're together at last”
But curiously these last words cost her her self-possession Instantly she was ill at ease The reestablishh she had not anticipated it, the six years of separation had wrought their changes She felt that she needed time to become adjusted to him--just as a man who has been blind needs time to become adjusted to his vision And at once their proxi
”Where's Bill?” she asked She turned to the door and called ”Bill, where are you?”
His voice seemed quite his ohen he answered froht ”I'll be in in aa load of wood”
It wasn't true He had been standing du afar But he began hastily to fill his arinia turned back to her new-found lover
She was a little frightened by the expression on his face His eyes were glowing, the color had risen in his cheeks, he was curiously eager and breathless ”Before he co----”