She laughed at that, showing teeth that were still fine, and stirring her tea with a steady hand.
“Nay, not I!” she said in the same voice, the very strength of which was an added denial. “It’d take a deal more than that to knock me out.” Then suddenly she sobered, staring thoughtfully at the cup before her. “I was just sort of—satisfied—I suppose.”
He said: “That’s right! That’ll be it,” in his quiet tones, nodding at her again, although this time she wasn’t looking at him; the little action and the repeated phrase seeming to warn off something inside him that was making him feel guilty.
“I was dreaming a deal, although I was so sound....” She lifted her eyes to him once more in their shining eagerness. “I dreamt I was There!”
He grew, if possible, a trifle more still. So far, he had evaded the letter successfully, but he could not evade this. In another minute, and in spite of himself, he, too, would be There....
“I saw the whole spot as plain as plain!” Mattie went on rapidly. “There was Luke’s house, first of all, and then Joe’s, and then Maggie’s and her husband’s,—all nearabouts together, just as they’ve always said.”
He murmured, “Yes, yes! Yes, yes!” trying to hold himself back, but feeling that he was going, all the same.
“Ellen was there, too, though she lives a good bit off....” She ruminated a little, as if trying to work out in her mind how Ellen had managed it. “It was all just as they said, only a deal bigger. All of ’em together, just as they used to be, and things as snug as snug!”
“Yes, yes! Yes, yes!”
She paused a moment, contentedly sipping her tea, and staring at the knitted quilt on the bed as though she saw the whole pattern of her dream laid out there before her.