of a
shadow."

"I don't know what more you expected. I didn't know you wanted anything
more!"

"I guess I wanted love," he said in a tone so low that she barely caught
it.

He stood over by the table, looking down on her from his great height.
His face was flushed, but his eyes were steady and unashamed.

"You!"

She looked at him in absolute consternation. Her breath came in hurried
gasps. But her heart sang in her breast and the little pathetic droop of
her mouth disappeared. Her telltale eyes dropped on her work. Not yet,
not yet; she was greedy to hear more.

"I know you now less well than when you'd been only a week up to Ed's."
He resumed his pacing up and down. "I guess I've lost the trail. I'm
just beating round, floundering in the bush."

"I never knew you wanted love," she said softly.

"I guess I didn't know it until just lately, either."

"I suppose parting's always rather painful," she said with just the
beginning of a little smile creeping round the corners of her lips.

"If you go back--_when_ you go back," he corrected himself, "to the old
country, I guess--I guess you'll never want to come back."

"Perhaps you'll come over to England yourself, one of these days. If you
only have a couple of good years, you could easily shut up the place and
run over for the winter," she said shyly.

"I guess that would be a dangerous experiment. You'll be a lady in
England. I guess I'd still be only the hired man."

"You'd be my husband."

"N-o-o-o," he said, with a shake of the head. "I guess I wouldn't chance
it."

She tried another way. She was sure of her happiness now; she could play
with it a little longer.

"You'll write to me now and then, and tell me how you're getting on,
won't you?"

"Will you care to know?" he asked quickly.

"Why, yes, of course I shall."

"Well," he said, throwing back his head proudly, "I'll write and tell
you if I'm making good. If I ain't, I guess I shan't feel much like
writing."

"But you _will_ make good, Frank. I know you well enough for that."

"Do you?" His tone was grateful.

"I have learned to--to respect you during these months we've lived
together. You have taught me a great deal. All sorts of qualities which
I used to think of great value seem unimportant to me now. I have
changed my ideas about many things."

"We have each learned something, I guess," he said generously.

Nora gave him a grateful glance. He stood for a moment at the far end