"I got hold of his knees again and begged him not to be scared. At last he took me by the arm and dragged me to the door and locked me into the cold hall. I never forgave him. In the morning Ed Pierce was gone. For a few days they mentioned him. Then they stopped talking about him. There was nothing left but the stones and the hope of The Far West. And all the weary years till I could get there."
"And you got here."
"Yes. I got here." There was no triumph in Herrick's tone.
Jean held out her hands to him suddenly. "You see, you can do what you want."
It was the first physical response Jean had ever offered. Herrick took both hands in his and laid his cheek on them. Then, without a word, he got to his feet and helped Jean up.
From the top of the hill they looked back. The fire glowed a deep red hummock on the black beach. The white crescent of a new moon hung in a rift of cloud and touched to silver the crests of the long swells. Herrick walked ahead along the narrow trail and they scarcely spoke.
But at the gate, under shadow of the acacia that drooped its long yellow blooms close to them, Herrick put his arms about Jean, pressed his lips fiercely to hers, and hurried away.
Jean lay awake a long time, feeling the hot pressure of Herrick's soft mouth and wishing that he had not kissed her.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Herrick was happier than he had been for a long time as he sat bareheaded on the upper deck and thought back over the day with Jean and of how she had looked as he kissed her. It excited him and made him tender to remember the look in her eyes, and the faint smile deepened as he wondered what she was thinking now. Her lips had not responded in the least, but she had seemed neither angry nor frightened. She had accepted it as she would have accepted a leaf falling from the acacia above. And yet he was sure that she had not often, if ever, been kissed by a man. In some ways she was strangely primitive and in others she seemed to have lived through and left behind in ages past the ordinary emotional reactions. Herrick's brain was on fire with expectation and curiosity. The memory of the kiss quickened his mind more than his body, and his own reaction thrilled him with a new sensation.