hamed she went back to stolen
meetings--in a barn--behind a rick--in the elvish shadow of some
skew-blown thorn. Just kisses ... not love, for love had been dead in
her then.... But those kisses had been sweet, she remembered them, she
could feel them on her lips ... oh, she could love again now--she could
give and take kisses now.

The band was playing a rich, thick, drawling melody, full of the purple
night and the warm air. The lovers round the bandstand seemed to sway to
it and draw closer to each other. Joanna looked down into her lap, for
her eyes were full of tears. She regretted passionately the days that
were past--those light loves which had not been able to live in the
shadow of Martin's memory. Oh, why had he taught her to love and then
made it impossible for her ever to love again?--till it was too late,
till she was a middle-aged woman to whom no man came.... It was not
likely that anyone would want her now--her light lovers all lived now in
substantial wedlock, the well-to-do farmers who had proposed to her in
the respectful way of business had now taken to themselves other wives.
The young men looked to women of their own age, to Ellen's pale, soft
beauty ... once again she envied Ellen her loves, good and evil, and
shame was in her heart. Then she lifted her eyes and saw Martin coming
towards her.

Sec.13

In the darkness, lit only now by the lamp-dazzled moonlight, and in the
mist of her own tears, the man before her was exactly like Martin, in
build, gait, colouring and expression. Her moment of recognition stood
out clear, quite distinct from the realization of impossibility which
afterwards engulfed it. She unclasped her hands and half rose in her
seat--the next minute she fell back. "Reckon I'm crazy," she thought to
herself.

Then she was startled to realize that the man had sat down beside her.
Her heart beat quickly. Though she no longer confused him with Martin,
the image of Martin persisted in her mind ... how wonderfully like him
he was ... the very way he walked....

"I saw you give me the glad eye ..." not the way he talked, certainly.

There was a terrible silence.

"Are you going to pretend you didn't?"

Joanna turned on him the tear-filled eyes he had considered glad. She
blinked the tears out recklessly on to her cheek, and opened her mouth
to reduce him to the level of the creeping things upon the earth.... But
the mouth remained open and speechless. She could not look