Emerson's Wife and Other Western Stories eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 214 pages of information about Emerson's Wife and Other Western Stories.

Emerson's Wife and Other Western Stories eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 214 pages of information about Emerson's Wife and Other Western Stories.

Once, when Adams had gone to fetch her a glass of water, she leaned her head upon her hand for a moment and was conscious of a little nervous catch in her breath.  Something he had just said brought back to her mind a memory of the lawyer to whom she had been engaged and of whom she had been thinking—­was it only three days ago?  It seemed as if she had lived through many months since then.  “If I had felt like this toward him,” she thought, “I would not have gone back to college.”

Adams gave her the water with adoration in his eyes.  For an instant her glance met his and then quickly dropped.  He leaned forward with a sudden start and barely checked the words of love that were ready to rush from his tongue.  Then he left her for a little while and walked about restlessly for the few paces that were possible in the end of the car.

He must keep a closer watch on himself, he mused.  What would she think of him if he dared to speak to her of love after a three days’ acquaintance?  By the merest scratch he had kept himself from clamoring “I love you!  I love you!” in her ear.  And justly she might have considered it an insult.  What was he to her but a mere car acquaintance?  True, she had seemed to find his company pleasant and congenial, and perhaps she would allow him to go to see her at her home.  And then, after he had made himself known to her father and mother and allowed them to find out who and what he was—­then, he would bring his fate to the test.

He went back with a tighter curb upon himself and a determination to guard his tongue more closely.  Elizabeth felt at once the slight change in his demeanor.  But she did not stop to reason about it or to question herself as to its cause.  Conscious only of an instinctive, imperious desire for him to be again just as he had been before, she leaned toward him with a jesting remark, and the slow turn of her head, the witchery of her smile, the way her eyes flashed and dropped, strained his new resolution almost to the breaking-point.  He leaned back in the seat with his arms rigid and his fists clenched until she, noticing the tense muscles of his hand, laughingly told him he would have nervous prostration if he did not learn to relax his nerves.

Presently the train switched and stopped at a small station, and Adams learned from the conductor that they would wait there, perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes, for an east-bound train to pass.  Most of the passengers got out to walk up and down while they were waiting, and when Adams and Elizabeth saw, across the road, beside a restaurant, a little vine-covered arbor in which were tables and chairs, they decided that it looked inviting, and went in to see if they could get some lemonade.  It was quite deserted and after a few minutes Adams went out to see if he could find a waiter.

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Emerson's Wife and Other Western Stories from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.