It seemed so strange to walk on the edge of some suspected but unknown danger, as if the ground was mined somewhere along the way. I was outwardly cheerful, I sang about the house, I tried to answer blithely, I cooked the things Dan liked, I begged him to come home early. I indulged in little caressing ways, such as he used to fairly extort years before. I put on whatever semblance of love I could use without being effusive. It did not warm him at all, and he had been so easily roused. What was this stone that I surged against?
"Ruth," father said one morning, "what is Dan about, has he told you of any new plans?"
"No," I answered in a kind of surprise.
"He is putting money in the copper mines up at Lake Superior. He has sold that Lake Street property, at a sacrifice, I think, and he asked me for a settlement. He wants to go up to the copper fields himself."
"No, I have heard nothing about it."
Father came nearer and took both of my hands.
"Ruth, you cannot go up there, even with your husband," he exclaimed solemnly.
"He has not asked me. I do not think he would want me." Yet I shuddered at the prospect.
"One cannot fathom him any more. Of course, he was very plausible and all that, considering my interest, and saying he had not time to attend to it, that he might be away for months, and that now I was so much improved a good overseer would answer my purpose. But I say again he shall not take you. I would as soon hand you over to a pack of ravening wolves! Oh, my darling, I have no one in the world but you, a broken, disabled, lonely old man."
He pressed me to his heart, and I felt the sob there. The strong arms about me gave me inexpressible comfort.