appear he thought with a
smile of satisfaction that she had stopped, not finding it easy to
approach after the haughty manner in which she had just dismissed his
demands. He waited a moment, considering terms of capitulation, and then
walked unconcernedly out.

The truth broke upon him. She had passed the barn, she was on her way to
the willows, not to him. Something in John Hunter sickened.

Up to the moment when John had seen his wife coming toward him he had been
fully prepared to stand by the terms of dissolution which he had made. But
in that moment when he watched her recede from him in the direction of the
willows, the tide of his feelings turned; he wished he had not issued his
ultimatum; he wished he had not put it to the test.

The triumph of receiving her submission had been his first thought when he
had seen her come from the house, and it had been a sweet morsel while it
had lasted, but when he had seen her going from him toward the willows, he
suddenly realized that triumph had slipped from his grasp. Suddenly he
desired to possess her. Not since the first six weeks of their
acquaintance had Elizabeth looked so fair to him. He had put her away! A
great sob rose up in him. He had said that he would go back to his mother,
and his fate was sealed. He had gone to the barn to saddle his horse and
start on the instant for Mitchell County and the cattle he had chosen as
his portion, but all at once the glamour of his going died away and he saw
the choice he had made. To crown his cheerless flight, Jack was at Nathan
Hornby's, and pride would not let him follow the child up even when he was
going away forever. Nate Hornby had had something to do with this business
of Elizabeth getting the money, and he had also had something to do with
her determination to take the money out of his, her husband's, hands, and
he, John Hunter, would not humble himself before him. Long before
Elizabeth's return from the willows her husband was away.

Great was Elizabeth Hunter's surprise when John did not appear at supper.
She had not taken him seriously; he had always blustered, and while she
had realized that he was angry enough to make his word good, she had
supposed that he would make a division of the property if he intended to
leave her, and make arrangements for the child. She did not believe that
he was gone, and answered the observations and questions of the hired men
by saying that he had probably gone for the baby. In f