"

"Don't bother about that." He tried to comfort her. "You only come nigh
making the mistake I actually tumbled into. You ought to be thankful you
escaped the consequences that I had to shoulder. I didn't know Hettie,
and the only true love is the sort that comes from a deep knowledge of a
person's character. You see, I know you, little girl, through and
through. I've seen you in trouble and in joy, and found you all
there--true blue, the sweetest woman God ever made. If I'm out o' sorts
here lately it is because I can't keep from seeing what an awful,
life-long mistake I made. It is seeing the thing you'd die to have, but
which is out of your reach, that makes you see how empty the whole world
is."

"Don't say any more." Dixie impulsively touched his arm and then drew
her hand away. "I could listen to you talk that way all night, but I
must do my duty to you and me both. Talking of what we've lost won't
bring us any nearer to it. As for me, well--I'm a sight happier than I
was before she went off. I don't exactly know why, but I am. Every night
before I go to bed I tuck away my two old folks, and then hear little
Joe say his lessons and his prayers, and then I go out in the yard and
look at your light gleaming and twinkling through the vines about your
window. Then my heart gets full of a feeling so sweet and soothing that
when I look above the whole starry sky seems to shower down comfort and
blessings. Then I thank God, Alfred--not for giving you to me like other
women get their partners for life, but for giving me a love that can't
die as long as the universe stands."

He saw her breast heave with emotion. He tried to find his voice, but it
seemed to have sunken too deep within his throat for utterance. The
vague form of a horse and rider appeared outlined against the horizon
down the road. She was moving away, but he touched her arm and detained
her.

"Wait till he passes," he said. "Don't go yet--not just yet!"

"I ought not to be here talking to you after dark," she mildly
protested. There was a pause, during which the eyes of both were on the
horseman. "Why," she cried, "it is Mr. Wrinkle!"

And so it was. The old man reined in his sweating mount, and, throwing a
stiff leg over the animal's rump, he stood down beside them.

"Howdy do?" he greeted them. "I've just started to yore house, Alf. I'm
totin' a big piece o' news. I'm late. I had to stop an' tell it to a
hundred, at least, on the way. You mought