Sudden joy leapt to her blue eyes.
“Oh, yes,” she told him with a world of understanding in her voice. There was a silence; then she went on reminiscently: “There’s a little Spanish Mission church—I pass it ’most every day. I can look in an’ see the light burnin’ before the Virgin an’ see the saints standin’ round with glassy eyes an’ faded satin slippers. An’ I often tho’t what they’d think if I was to walk right in to be made—well, some man’s wife. It makes your blood like pin-points thinkin’ about it. There’s somethin’ kind o’ holy about love, ain’t they?”
Johnson nodded. He had never regarded love in that light before, much less known it. For many moments he stood motionless, a new problem of right and wrong throbbing in his bosom.
At last, it being settled that Johnson was to pass the night in the Girl’s cabin, she went over to the bed and, once more, began to make it ready for his occupancy. Meanwhile, Johnson, seated in the barrel rocker before the fire, watched her with a new interest. The Girl had not gone very far with her duties, however, when she suddenly came over to him, plumping herself down on the floor at his feet.
“Say, did you ever ask any other woman to marry you?” she asked as she leaned far back in his arms.
“No,” was the man’s truthful answer.
“Oh, how glad I am! Take me—ah, take me I don’t care where as long as it is with you!” cried the Girl in an ecstasy of delight.
“So help me, God, I’m going to...!” promised Johnson, his voice strained, tense. “You’re worth something better than me, Girl,” he added, a moment later, “but they say love works miracles every hour, that it weakens the strong and strengthens the weak. With all my soul I love you, with all my soul I—” The man let his voice die out, leaving his sentence unfinished. Suddenly he called: “Why, Min-Minnie!”
“I wasn’t really asleep,” spoke up the Girl, blinking sleepily. “I’m jest so happy an’ let down, that’s all.” The next moment, however, she was forced to acknowledge that she was awfully sleepy and would have to say good-night.
“All right,” said Johnson, rising, and kissed her good-night.