irl showed me! You'd ought to know her, Brent!"

"Who is that blind girl?"

"Who? Oh, Brent, don't you know a-tall? Listen!"

She turned him about and pointed to the horizon beyond Snarly Knob.
There was a subcurrent of excitement in her voice, and the night seemed
to grow more still as she went on speaking. The story was dramatic and
moving, and frequently her eyes would strain toward the distant sky-line
as though the face of some strong presence were gazing out with
inscrutable calmness. It was some time again before either of them
spoke, and, when he did, she was watching him with a new softness.

"Who'd ever suppose," he murmured, gazing into the blue-black east which
drew him with something more than a curious interest, "there was
anything like that up in those God-forsaken mountains!"

"Miss Jane says there are things like that everywhere, Brent."

"Maybe there are," he took a deep breath. "I've just happened to miss
'em. I wish I hadn't."

She could not help laughing just a little at his doleful
expression--and, moreover, she was happy, just a little, too.

"You seem to have repentance pasted all over you, Brent! Pappy gets that
way when his whiskey runs out. But it's moh becomin' to you! I wish Miss
Jane could see it!"

He flushed, and she laughed again.

"Miss Jane has already seen us tonight," he said in a low voice. "I
don't know about her, or Dale, but there are others who'll put an
entirely false construction on our being together. You know that. Tell
me something: would you be willing to marry me and go away tomorrow?"

Just how far Nancy's vision penetrated this speech, perhaps she did not
know; but she stood very still, scarcely breathing and holding her hands
in a vice-like grip. She tried to make another pretense of laughing, but
it failed; and her voice was sad when she turned to him.

"I don't reckon I'm the kind that'll be hurt much by what people say."
Coming nearer, her eyes searched his face which was still turned to the
ground, and she whispered: "Which'd be worse, Brent: goin' away married
an' without love, or unmarried an' with love?"

He looked up in surprise: "The world wouldn't talk if we were married!"

"Don't you believe it, Brent," she said quietly. "The world 'd talk if
you married a girl like me, moh'n it would if you didn't. I've been
awake for seven days, Brent, an' I ain't a girl no moh in some ways. An'
Brent," her cheeks were flaming now, "I might give you anythin'