Her tone caught the lightness of his and carried it off with gaiety.
"But there is a way out. Have you found it?"
"There is none. I've wallowed so long in the filth that it has covered me."
"Surely it will rub off," she said.
For a moment the lantern's flash rested upon his brow and eyes, relieving them against the obscurity which still enveloped his mouth.
The high-bred lines of his profile stood out clear and fine as those of an ivory carving, and their very beauty saddened the look she turned upon him. Then the light fell suddenly lower and revealed the coarsened jaw, with the almost insolent strength of the closed lips. The whole effect was one of reckless power, and she caught her breath with the thought that so compelling a force might serve equally the agencies of good or evil.
They had reached the lawn, and as he responded to her hurried gesture of silence they passed the house quickly and entered the great open door of the barn. Here he hung the lantern from a nail, and then, pulling down some straw from a pile in one corner, arranged it into the rude likeness of a pallet.
"I don't think the mice will trouble you," he said at last, as he turned to go, "but if they do—why, just call out and I'll come to slaughter—"
"You won't go home, then?" she asked, amazed.
He nodded carelessly.