“You’ll always be Marta. But it makes no difference; you’ll soon be changing your name for keeps. You can’t ever lose me, now, and love has Mrs. Kingdon and all the rest of them beat for what you call reforming.”
“If I had only known long ago that there were folks like you and Mrs. Kingdon and—”
“Never mind long ago. There’s nothing to it. Let’s talk about the little shack we are going to put up in these hills somewhere. Like it?”
“It seems like a beautiful dream up here, Jo. Too good for me.”
He looked down into the kitten face with its eyes of Irish blue.
“Nothing in the world is too good for you, my Marta.”
“Miss Lamont said I could play I had died and been born again. She said it was a good way to turn over a new leaf.”
“You will be born again as Mrs. Jo Gary.”
Time went very swiftly then, and it was Marta who realized Pen might be expecting to see her.
“Please start me in the right direction, Jo.”