Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-11-07

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entertaining. She doesn't, I assure you;
she just wants to look about and see
things happen, see how the flowers grow
and what the pigs eat and how the sheep
come into the fold and wonder how the
chickens know when it's time to be fed"
He stood looking at her, still wistfully.
you're not angry with me, are your"
he said.
Angry? No, Of course not, and you
mustn't be angry with me. 1t was very
bad tempered of me, because l know you
were only doing it to please me. But you
won't any more, will your It's not neces-
sary."
What am 1 to talk about, them"
81 have an idea," she said, flashing a
brilliant smile at him. "Let us never
talk at all unless we have something we
very much want to say"
He smiled back at her, but his smile
was q little sad. Yet he accepted the new
basis of conversation. In the first day or
two their talk lost in bulk, but in quality
it gained. Then Miss Roscommon awoke
to the fact that he was talking as much as
ever and she more than ever before. And
now she began to perceive glilnpses of the
real man, Of the passionate love of all
things beautiful that had lain beneath his
veneer of cheap culture. He talked no
more Of literature and art. Nor did he
talk of himself. But he spoke of his ia
ther, and she respected him. He spoke of
his mother and the little dead sister and
something like tenderness began to soften
the respect. She saw how the pastoral
peace Of the old place held his soul, and
she wondered how he could ever have torn
himself from it to 'go into the mantles."
To go to college, yes-but Into the
tles!" But this was one of the things of
which he never spoke.
Her time of holiday was nearly over be-
fore she learned that he wrote verses.
Trembling and yet happy, he read them to
her n golden afternoon in the orchard.
And they were good verses. They accen-
tuated her curiosity as to his choice of a
career. The two were now SO nearly friends
that she dared to speak her wonder.
why" she said, 'you must love the
country in your heart or you could never
write like thisl You make dear little pic
lures in your verses. I can't think why
you ever chose to go into business instead
Of living here"
He flushed hotly and began to pull the
dry grass from the roots of the apple tree.
II didn't know" he said. ri had no
idea what business meant. l thought that
in London I should have some chance of
meeting intellectual people"
"That's a hateful phrase" she said
sharply.
"Then I'll change it, " he said, and the
voice was a voice she had not heard be-
fore. II wanted to get to London because
I thought I had ne chance here of meeting
you-oh, Of course, I don't mean Miss
Mabel Roscommon, but you don't sup
pose I have never dreamed of a woman
like you, a woman who knows all the
things I want to know and never had the
chance to know, a woman I could worship
as / worship you, my scornful LADY,"
His voice was hard, defiant, and her
eyes were hard and scornful. She was very
angry.
And SO you thought you would meet
me, or my like, among the young ladies
who serve in the mantles.' Thank you"
"You aren't a snob, really" he said
quietly. "Please dom talk like n just to
annoy me-"
It was hard hitting-the gloves off on
both sides. Each drew a long breath. The
level shadows of the tree trunks lay thick
and black across the orchard grass.
"You despise me, " he said. "Don't try
to make me despise you. Not that you
could. I know you better than you know
yourself. How could 1 know what chance
there was for me in Londonp I have found
you, and found you here. If / had gone
to college-if my father had not sown
wheat that year, I should be your social
equal and a gentleman"
"You have a good deal Of faith in Ok.
ford, " she said, with cold malice.
you'll only be sorry afterward, I" he
said. "Why hit a mar when he's DOWN.
I love you from your head to your feet. 1
love your voice and your dear brown eyes
and that smile Of yours. 1 love you, body,
soul and spirit, but I'm not worthy to tell
you SO. Forgive me and forget it. 1t was
for you I wanted to go to college, for you
I went to London. I was a fool, but 1t
was for you, because I have dreamed Of
you all my life. Now I've told you, and
it's all over."
what are you going to doP Shall you
60 back to Londonp" Her voice was low
and not quite steady.
"No, I've had enough of that. I shall
stay here and help my father to work the
farm. Yes, I shall have books-I know
you despise them, but that's because you
have got all you want of them. I shall
help to farm the land and look after my
mother, and read and try to forget you"
He had risen and stood looking down at
her. She rose too. They stood looking
at each other. He was no longer a boy in
her eyes-he was a man, and her master.
She perceived now how the affectations
that had annoyed her were not part of the
man, but merely the trappings he had put
on-foolishly, vainly put Onto gain her
approval. She thought Of his life, alone
at the farm. She thought of her life,
alone in the crowded high school. She
raised her eyes to his, and her eyes were
full of tears.
Don't be unhappy about me-" he said
eagerly. II ought lever to have told you,
and 1t is not SO hard, really, as If I had
never known you, for then / could never
have settled down here, where I really be-
long, and have done my plain duty. /
should have wandered all over the world
looking for you. Now I shall have the
memory Of you to keep me company, and
I can do what I ought to have done long
ago and what I should have wanted to do
but for wanting to find you. You are not
to be unhappy. I am not. am glad"
Her tears brimmed over and fell. This,
then, was the nature he had thought too
poor to show her; this the soul he had
covered up with borrowed plumes.
Forgive me, he said again. II ought
not to have told you, but I never thought
1t would hurt you like this. Believe me,
I shall be glad all my life that I have
known you, and all the farm and the fields
about will be dear to HE forever now. You
will do me good and not evil all the days
Of your life"
She made two steps toward him and laid
her arm on his shoulder and her wet cheek
To his