w and then the old woman's
eyes were on him, and often his eyes were on her, but they did not
speak; they just walked on in silence till they reached home.

It was but a poor, little house even when the wistaria vine covered
it, wall and roof, and the bees hummed among its clusters of violet
blossoms; but now the wistaria bush was only a tangle of twisted wires
hung upon it, and the little weather-stained cabin looked bare and
poor enough. As the young fellow stood in the door looking out with the
evening light upon him, his tall, straight figure filled it as if it
had been a frame. He stood perfectly motionless for some minutes, gazing
across the gum thickets before him.

The sun had set only about a half-hour and the light was still lingering
on the under edges of the clouds in the west and made a sort of glow in
the little yard before him, as it did in front of the cabin on the other
hill. His eye first swept the well-known horizon, taking in the thickets
below him and the heavy pines on either side where it was already dusk,
and then rested on the little cabin opposite. Whether he saw it or
not, one could hardly have told, for his face wore a reminiscent look.
Figures moved backward and forward over there, came out and went in,
without his look changing. Even Vashti, faintly distinguishable in
her gay dress, came out and passed down the hill alone, without his
expression changing. It was, perhaps, fifteen minutes later that he
seemed to awake, and after a look over his shoulder stepped from the
door into the yard. His mother was cooking, and he strolled down the
path across the little clearing and entered the pines. Insensibly his
pace quickened--he strode along the dusky path with as firm a step as if
it were broad daylight. A quarter of a mile below the path crossed the
little stream and joined the path from Cove Mills's place, which he used
to take when he went to school. He crossed at the old log and turned
down the path through the little clearing there. The next moment he
stood face to face with Vashti Mills. Whether he was surprised or not
no one could have told, for he said not a word, and his face was in the
shadow, though Vashti's was toward the clearing and the light from the
sky was on it. Her hat was in her hand. He stood still, but did not
stand aside to let her pass, until she made an imperious little gesture
and stepped as if she would have passed around him. Then he stood
aside. But she did not app