“Don’t begrudge him to us, Miss Christine. John won’t leave you all alone. I shouldn’t wonder if he could get old Pedro Garcia and his daughter to come stay on the rancho. There’s the empty cabin, you know.”
“Steve’s cabin?” Christine shook her head in opposition to the suggestion.
“It ain’t any use to have it stand there and fall to pieces, is it?” he said. “I wish to heavens Steve was still in it, but if he was here he’d be going off, too, to this war, and you’d have that trouble to face. There’s no good looking behind. The best way is to let what’s gone lie still and keep on a-stepping forward.”
Christine sighed. “I can’t look forward with much joy unless I let myself believe that Steve will come back.”
“Don’t do any harm to believe it.”
“Do you think there is the slightest hope?”
“Of course there’s a chance, not much of a one, I’ll admit, but Steve was a good fighter.”
“Was? Can’t you say is?”
“I’ll say it till I have to say was. We’ve always been good friends, Steve and I. He’s spoken of you to me,” added Neal a little hesitatingly.
“I felt sure of that, and it is why I have always felt that I could talk to you more freely.”