in
one of its million crannies, this fragile half formed woman was there,
seeing the sky with her silver gray eyes.

"I 'm afraid you are going too fast," she panted.

He stopped himself and found her with cheeks flushed in her effort to
keep up with him.

"Pardon me," he exclaimed, "I did n't realize. I was going pretty
fast. Let's sit down and rest a minute."

"It is n't necessary if you will only slow down a little."

"I will." He smiled. "My thoughts were going even faster than my
legs. We 'll rest a little, anyhow."

They seated themselves beneath a roadside pine which had sprinkled the
ground with redolent brown needles. He wiped his hot forehead. The
undulating green fields throbbed before his excited eyes, as in
midsummer when they glimmer from the heat rays. He burrowed his
tightened fists to the cooler soil below the brown carpet.

"I guess you are glad to sit down a moment yourself," she suggested,
noting his forced deep breathing. "Your efforts with Ben tired you
more than you thought."

"I 'd like to have that chance over again--now."

His tense long body looked like Force incarnate. She caught her breath
quickly.

"I 'm glad you have n't," she gasped.

She had the feeling that he could have picked up the boy and hurled him
like a bit of wood into the road. She was not frightened. She liked
to see him in such a mood. It gave her, somehow, a big sense of
safety. It swept away all those haunting fears which had so long been
always present in the background of her consciousness. It did this in
as impersonal a way as the sun scatters shadows.

"The trouble is," he was saying, "that we don't often get a chance to
try things--the big things--twice. The fairer way would seem to be to
allow this, for we have to fail once in order to learn."

"You are generalizing?" she asked tentatively.

"I am sentimentalizing," he answered abruptly, suddenly coming to
himself. He was more personal than he had any right to be. It did no
good to become maudlin over what was irrevocably decided. The Present.
He must cling to that one idea. Let him drink in the sunshine while it
lasted; let him absorb as much of her as he could without taking one
tittle from her.

His phrase had piqued her curiosity once more. She would like to know
the inner meaning of his impatient eyes, the explanation of why his
lips closed with such spasmodic firmness. There was something
tantalizing in this reserve whic