"You was always such a man for peace, and now you'll soon have it—that's something."
Then Robert spoke. The ill-temper of Avis was a surprise to him.
"Have done," he said. "I don't want to hear you lecture your father."
He spoke rather sternly and Jacob answered him.
"Better stand up for her, not me, Bob. You'll soon know which side your bread's buttered with my fine Avis. The wedding shall be as she pleases."
Then he left them and they went out into the twilight together, Avis a little alarmed.
She was soon forgiven, for she elaborated her grievance and explained to Robert how the disaster that had overtaken Red House, wrecked not only her mother's life, but cast its shadow over her own. She pretended more than she felt and he consoled her as best he might, for he was much in love and shared her regrets at the passing misfortune, but broke away from it to their own surer future.
"There's a screw loose in such a lot of married people," he said. "Don't think I haven't seen it. It was under my eyes while my father was fighting death. Thank God you and me are different. We know each other's natures down to the quick, and nothing could ever rise up against love like ours."
Elsewhere Jacob mused over his recent experience.
"She's grown up," he reflected. "No doubt a moment in time comes like that, when a man's child, that he still held to be a child, flings off childhood and stands out before him full-fledged man, or woman. And for certain the shock, when it falls, is oftener painful than not."