t few months.
Their new-found happiness was not without its sadness already. All was
over now; their solitary walks, the long, still evenings in the little
dining-room overlooking the sleeping city, their excursions to Luna's,
their afternoons spent in the golden Chinese balcony, their mornings on
the lake, calm and still and hot. Forever and forever they had said
good-by to that life. Already the sunset was losing its glory.

Then, with one last look, they turned about and set their faces from it
to the new life, to the East, where lay the Nation. Out beyond the
purple bulwarks of the Sierras, far off, the great, grim world went
clashing through its grooves--the world that now they were to know, the
world that called to them, and woke them, and roused them. Their
little gayeties were done; the life of little things was all behind.
Now for the future. The sterner note had struck--work was to be done;
that, too, the New Year had brought to them--work for each of them,
work and the world of men.

For a moment they shrank from it, loth to take the first step beyond
the confines of the garden wherein they had lived so joyously and
learned to love each other; and as they stood there, facing the gray
and darkening Eastern sky, their backs forever turned to the sunset,
Blix drew closer to him, putting her hand in his, looking a little
timidly into his eyes. But his arm was around her, and the strong
young force that looked into her eyes from his gave her courage.

"A happy New Year, dear," she said.

"A very, very happy New Year, Blix," he answered.

[The End]

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blix, by Frank Norris

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLIX ***

***** This file should be named 401.txt or 401.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/401/

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg i