awkwardly. "Aw, say, Tessie, I didn't
mean--why, say--you don't suppose--why, believe me, I pretty near busted
out cryin' when I saw the Junction eatin' house when my train came in.
And I been thinkin' of you every minute. There wasn't a day--"

"Tell that to your swell New York friends. I may be a rube, but I ain't
a fool." She was perilously near to tears.

"Why, say, Tess, listen! Listen! If you knew--if you knew--a guy's got
to--he's got no right to--"

And presently Tessie was mollified, but only on the surface. She smiled
and glanced and teased and sparkled. And beneath was terror. He talked
differently. He walked differently. It wasn't his clothes or the army.
It was something else--an ease of manner, a new leisureliness of glance,
an air. Once Tessie had gone to Milwaukee over Labour Day. It was the
extent of her experience as a traveller. She remembered how superior she
had felt for at least two days after. But Chuck! California! New York!
It wasn't the distance that terrified her. It was his new knowledge, the
broadening of his vision, though she did not know it and certainly could
not have put it into words.

They went walking down by the river to Oneida Springs, and drank some of
the sulphur water that tasted like rotten eggs. Tessie drank it with
little shrieks and shudders and puckered her face up into an expression
indicative of extreme disgust.

"It's good for you," Chuck said, and drank three cups of it, manfully.
"That taste is the mineral qualities the water contains--sulphur and
iron and so forth."

"I don't care," snapped Tessie, irritably. "I hate it!" They had often
walked along the river and tasted of the spring water, but Chuck had
never before waxed scientific. They took a boat at Baumann's boathouse
and drifted down the lovely Fox River.

"Want to row?" Chuck asked. "I'll get an extra pair of oars if you do."

"I don't know how. Besides, it's too much work. I guess I'll let you do
it."

Chuck was fitting his oars in the oarlocks. She stood on the landing
looking down at him. His hat was off. His hair seemed blonder than ever
against the rich tan of his face. His neck muscles swelled a little as
he bent. Tessie felt a great longing to bury her face in the warm red
skin. He straightened with a sigh and smiled at her. "I'll be ready in a
minute." He took off his coat and turned his khaki shirt in at the
throat, so that you saw the white, clean line of his untanned chest in
strange con