Nobody came and there I sat!

Finally, with the tears tangling icily in my lashes, I got up and went into the house and lighted the fat pine under the logs in the hall.  They had lain all ready for the torch for a whole year, just as I had lain for a lifetime until a few weeks ago.  Then suddenly they blazed—­as I had done.

My condition was pitiable.  I felt that all nature had deserted me, the climate, Indian summer, the harvest moon and my own charm, but my head was up and I was going to crackle pluckily along to my blaze, so I turned towards the door to go across the road and put my fate to the test, even if I took pneumonia standing begging at his front door.  I hoped I would find him in the lodge and—­

“Evelina,” he exclaimed as he burst open my door, flung himself into the firelight and seized my arm like a robber baron of the Twelfth Century, making a grab for his lady-love in the midst of her hostile kindred, “I thought I would never get here!  I ran all the way up from the office.  Here’s a telegram from Mr. Hall that says that the two roads have merged and will take the bluff route past Glendale, and give us the shops,—­and wants to appoint me the General Attorney for the Southern Section.  They want me to come on to New York by the first train.  Can you marry me in the morning so we can take the noon express from Bolivar?  I won’t go without you.  Please, dear, please,” and as he stood and looked at me in the firelight, all the relief and excitement over his news died out of his lovely eyes and just the want of me filled them from their very depths.

For several interminable centuries of time I stood perfectly still and looked into them daringly, drinking my fill for the first time and offering him a like cup in my own.

“Eve,” he said so softly that I doubt if he really spoke the word.

“Adam!” I let myself go, and at last pressed my answer against his lips as he folded me tight and safe.

It must have been some time after, I am sure I don’t know how long, but I was most beautifully adjusted against his shoulder and he had my hand pressed to his cheek, when the awfulness of what had happened brought me straight up on my own feet and almost out of his arms.

“Oh, how could you have done it!” I fairly wailed, as I thought of what this awful complication was going to lose for the Five to whom I felt more tender in that second than I had ever felt before.

“Done what?” he demanded in alarm, pressing both my hands against his breast and drawing me towards him again.

“Asked me to marry you when I—­”

“I have been fighting desperately to see some way to offer myself and all my impedimenta to you all this time, and this has made it all right, don’t you see, dear?” he interrupted me to say, as he took possession of me again and held me with a tender fierceness, which had more of suffering in it than passion.  “I have always wanted you, Eve, since before you went away, but it didn’t seem right to ask you to come into a life so encumbered as mine was.  Poverty made it seem impossible, but now, if you will be just a little patient with them all, I can arrange—­”