This was an instant quietus to the girl’s coquetry. She gave him a startled glance. A splash of scarlet came into each cheek. For a moment there was utter silence. Then she made a soft feint of withdrawing from his arms. To her evident amazement, he made no attempt to detain her. This placed her in an awkward dilemma, and she stood irresolutely, with her eyes cast down.
Young Palmer’s arms fell at his sides with a movement of despair. Sometimes they were ungainly arms, but now absence of self-consciousness lent them a manly grace.
“Well, Emarine,” he said, kindly, “I’ll go back the way I come. Goodby.”
With a quick, spontaneous burst of passion—against which she had been struggling, and which was girlish and innocent enough to carry a man’s soul with it into heaven—Emarine cast herself upon his breast and flung her shawl-entangled arms about his shoulders. Her eyes were earnest and pleading, and there were tears of repentance in them. With a modesty that was enchanting she set her warm, sweet lips tremblingly to his, of her own free will.
“I didn’t mean it,” she whispered. “I was only a—a-foolin’.”
The year was older by a month when one morning Mrs. Endey went to the front door and stood with her body swaying backward, and one rough hand roofing the rich light from her eyes.
“Emarine ’ad ought to ’a’ got to the hill path by this time,” she said, in a grumbling tone. “It beats me what keeps her so! I reckon she’s a-standin’ like a bump on a lawg, watchin’ a red ant or a tumble-bug, or some fool thing! She’d leave her dish-washin’ any time an’ stand at the door a-ketchin’ cold in her bare arms, with the suds a-drippin’ all over her apron an’ the floor—a-listenin’ to one o’ them silly meadow-larks hollerin’ the same noise over ’n over. Her paw’s women-folks are all just such fools.”
She started guiltily and lowered her eyes to the gate which had clicked sharply.
“Oh!” she said. “That you, Emarine?” She laughed rather foolishly. “I was lookin’ right over you—lookin’ fer you, too. Miss Presly’s be’n here, an’ of all the strings she had to tell! Why, fer pity’s sake! Is that a dollar’s worth o’ coffee?”
“Yes, it is; an’ I guess it’s full weight, too, from the way my arm feels! It’s just about broke.”