ain.

They stood there side by side, nearly the same age, and yet the woman's
face was already lined with suffering, and her eyes were full of shadow.
There seemed no future for her, and yet she was young.

"Please don't let him know I've said anything to you, will you?"

"I'll try not to," he said, but he did not consider himself bound to any
definite concealment.

They ate dinner together without Miner, who had a fit of work on hand
which made him stubbornly unmindful of any call to eat. Moreover, he was
sure it would worry his wife.

The meal was a pleasant one on the whole, and they found many things in
common to talk about. Morris wanted to ask her a few more questions
about her life, but she begged him not to do so, and started him off on
the story of his college life. He was an enthusiastic talker and told
her his plans with boyish frankness. He forgot his fatigue, and she lost
for a time her premature cares and despairs. They were laughing together
over some of his college pranks when Miner came in at the door.

"Oh, I see!" he said, with an insulting, insinuating inflection. "Now I
understand the early dinner."

Morris sprang up and, walking over to the sneering husband, glared down
at him with a look of ferocity that sat singularly upon his round, fresh
face. "Now you _shut up_! If you open your mouth to me again I'll lick
you till your hide won't hold pumpkins!"

Miner shrank back, turned on his heel, and went off to the barn. He did
not return for his dinner.

Morris insisted on helping Mrs. Miner clear up the yard and uncover the
grapevine. He liked her very much. She appealed to the protector in him,
and she interested him besides, because of the melancholy which was
lined on her delicate face, and voiced in her low, soft utterances.

He appealed to her, because of his delicacy as well as strength. He had
something of the modern man's love for flowers, and did not attempt to
conceal his delight in thus tinkering about at woman's work. He ate
supper with her and worked on until it was quite dark, tired as he was,
and then shook hands and said "Good night."

Morris came back to his work the next day with a great deal of pleasure.
He had spent considerable thought upon the matter. He had almost
determined on a course of action. He had thought of going directly to
Miner and saying:

"Now look here, Miner, if you was _half_ a man, you'd pull out and leave
this woman in peace. How you can stand aro