“Why, Jimmy, you aren’t going into the woods to-night?”
“Why not?” he asked. “Haven’t I been in the woods at night before this? Run in, now. Good night, Milly.”
The girl stood, helpless against the bitterness in his guarded voice.
“Good night, Milly.”
“Good night,” she faltered. “Oh, Jimmy, it’s perfectly terrible for you to go——.”
She moved slowly towards the door. He watched her indistinct figure blend into the shadow of the cabin wall. Then the door opened, letting a flood of light across the snow. Mrs. Ayer stood in the doorway a moment while Milly said something to her, and then she called:
“Jimmy Claiborne, come in this minute, child!”
Jimmy slipped behind a tree.
“Jimmy?”
Still he made no answer. The warmth and the sight of the two women waiting for him, with nothing but kindness and tenderness in their hearts, moved him strangely. He was so unused to it. But he did not answer, and after waiting a moment longer they stepped back inside and the door shut them from his sight.