"What!" broke from him
explosively.

"An' me, I'm a witness," said old Jim. "Steve Jarrold's another. They
got the preacher there an' everything." He paused a moment and
reflected, with puckered brows. "What do you think of her marryin' that
swab, now? Think Ben's goin' to be pleased? Kind of surprising ain't it,
Mark?"

King managed a laugh which escaped critical notice only because old Jim
was only half listening.

"Oh, it's been open and shut all along that she'd marry Gratton," he
said, keeping his head down as he drew a match across the floor as
though to like a pipe whose bowl was empty. "If it suits his womenfolk,
I guess Ben will stand for it."

By now Jim had drawn his coat on and was back at the door.

"Better come along, Mark," he invited. "You don't see a weddin' every
day. Comin'?"

"No, thanks," said King. He broke his match between nervous fingers. He
raised his head to watch Jim go.

"Lord, Mark," said Spalding, holding on his heel a moment. "You must of
made one all-mighty day of it! You sure do look tuckered!"

King rose and went to the door and stood looking after the swiftly
departing figure. He saw the house, the windows bright with lights,
light streaming out through the door to the porch. There was Gloria.
Just there. And he had slept, and Gloria was marrying. And here was the
end of it--the end of everything, it dawned on him. He, who had never
looked twice on a woman, had looked thrice on her and again. He, the
one-woman man, had found the one woman--and had lost her. He looked out
toward the house and through its thick log walls saw Gloria; Gloria as
she had come down the stairs to him that first day, floating down like a
pink thistledown, putting her two hands into his, looking up into his
eyes with eyes which he would never forget; he saw her in the woods,
riding with him; by the spring waiting eagerly for the little
water-ouzel, she so like a bird herself; crossing a stream on
boulders--she had slipped; he had caught her into his arms--close. Her
hair had blown across his face. He stood with her on the highest crest
of a ridge; the world lay below them, they were alone in the blue
heavens. And he loved her. He groaned and ran his hand across his eyes
as though to wipe the pictures out--pictures which would never pass
away.

Gloria was marrying. Gratton. Now. He looked up into the sky bright with
stars; its great message to him was "Emptiness." The world was empty,
life was empt