“I was.”
He drew from underneath the bow a small bag. “A Frenchman gied me this. He called it sarrasin, but it’s plain buckwheat.”
The canny Scot loosened the string, took from his pocket two five-dollar bills, laid them within, tied the bag up, and placed it in Marvin’s skiff.
“Augustus Caesar, ye say, was engaged in the grain business. So was Joseph before him. But I hae me doots if Caesar’s dog or Joseph’s dog wad fetch and carry like Jeanie’s dog.”
Chapter 37. Rubidium
The tent was pitched, and dusk began to settle. The thrushes were filling the cathedral with chimes, and the windows began to glow. He felt like a vandal. The owner of this sacred place would never willingly destroy her church of Rheims, with its vesper windows and vesper bells, and the winds of eternity lingering among its columns.
At last came the tinkling summons, very faint and far. He arose and emerged upon the rocks. He would never have guessed that there had been a shower that day. Save for one low panel of cloud, all heaven was luminous above his young love there in the west. In that line of ultramarine a single light burned for him. Above it the tender reds of the open sky, and below it the tender reds of water, all tenderly bright from shore to shore.
Presently into that pure beauty someone had the courage to paddle a canoe. He looked, and saw that it was the doctor himself, facing forward to see the sunset, and followed by a silvery wedge. Marvin clambered down the rocks and followed the silver.
The point of light slowly became a window. By day a house is mostly a house, but when its evening lights shine out, it becomes a home. He was rowing home. And as he landed and walked up the path, he wished that he might never leave this place or her.
He strolled in and presented himself in the kitchen, holding out his hand. She had not forgotten. A new cake of soap was visible, with towels bleached in the sun. She proceeded to fill a basin with hot water, testing it on the hypothesis that what suited her would suit him. Then she dried her hands, unbuttoned the sleeve of his blouse, and rolled it back.