understand it, Elizabeth also turned hastily away;
Hugh Noland's embarrassment communicated itself to her. Her confusion
puzzled her. Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was near midnight; she
had read longer than she had thought. In her surprised consideration of
what Hepsie would think if she should hear Hugh pass her door at that
hour, she got the first burst of light on the subject. Until now she had
gone along night after night reading with Hugh Noland, absorbed in the
books, and without any sort of attitude toward the man except that of
good-fellowship, but now she stood revealed to herself and was covered
with shame. That Hugh might be in love with her did not occur to her, but
that he knew that she had feelings out of keeping with her vows of
marriage she felt certain, and with her usual intensity Elizabeth went
over the mark in her shame and contrition.

"What must he have thought I meant? What must he think of me as a woman?
Worse yet, what must he think of me as a wife?" she asked herself, and
each question left her more bitterly humiliated, more self-distrusting,
more unhappy.

They were to learn, however, that three months of continual association
over the books had formed a habit not easily laid aside. To the habit of
intellectual companionship had been added the joy of close and
reciprocated affection, and the sudden breaking off of this daily
communication left both of them, especially Hugh, in a condition of almost
tragic loneliness, but honest of heart and true of purpose, both avoided
further readings.

The nights were hot now; "good corn weather," Jake called it, and the time
had come to "lay by" the early planting. John's absence had retarded the
plowing, for try as he would the chores kept Hugh late in the morning and
had compelled him to quit early at night. It had not been his intention to
take the place of an active field worker, but the season had come on so
rapidly that the weeds threatened to get the better of the hired men, and
though it was all to learn over again, Hugh had gone out with the
intention of doing good work and had succeeded, to Jake's astonishment and
great admiration. It served Hugh's plans at this point to put in the long
hours away from the house, knowing that otherwise he would fall back into
the old life of the book at once. At first the heavy cultivator handles
absorbed his time and thought, for it was fifteen years since Hugh Noland
had cultivated corn, but when t