never even
spoken to each other on the subject."

It was the first time she had even seen sadness in his eyes; and
she impulsively clasped his hand. He returned the pressure and
then their palms separated. No franker sign of their love had ever
passed between them.

He went on very gravely: "Rowan was the most open nature I ever saw
when he was a boy. I remember this now. I did not think of it
then. I believe he was the happiest. You know we are all
pantheists of some kind nowadays. I could never see much
difference between a living thing that stands rooted in the earth
like a tree and a living thing whose destiny it is to move the foot
perpetually over the earth, as man. The union is as close in one
case as in the other. Do you remember the blind man of the New
Testament who saw men as trees walking? Rowan seemed to me, as I
recall him now, to have risen out of the earth through my father
and mother--a growth of wild nature, with the seasons in his face,
with the blood of the planet rising into his veins as intimately as
it pours into a spring oak or into an autumn grape-vine. I often
heard Professor Hardage call him the earth-born. He never called
any one else that. He was wild with happiness until he went to
college. He came back all changed; and life has been uphill with
him ever since. Lately things have grown worse. The other day I
was working on the plan of our house; he came in and looked over my
shoulder: 'Don't build, Dent,' he said, 'bring your wife here,' and
he walked quickly out of the room. I knew what that meant: he has
been unfortunate in his love affair and is ready to throw up the
whole idea of marrying. This is our trouble, Pansy. It may
explain anything that may have been lacking in my mother's
treatment of you; she is not herself at all." He spoke with great
tenderness and he looked disturbed.

"Can I do anything?" What had she been all her life but
burden-bearer, sorrow-sharer?

"Nothing."

"If I ever can, will you tell me?"

"This is the only secret I have kept from you, Pansy. I am sure
you have kept none from me. I believe that if I could read
everything in you, I should find nothing I did not wish to know."

She did not reply for a while. Then she said solemnly: "I have one
secret. There is something I try to hide from every human being
and I always shall. It is not a bad secret, Dent. But I do not
wish to tell you what it is, and I feel sure you will never