“Oh, Marie, don’t talk so,” cried Eveley, nervous tears springing to her eyes. “How could I be angry with you? But I was so frightened and shocked. I did not know how very much I loved you. You must never go into the canyon again at night. Never once,—for one minute. Will you promise me?”
“I will promise whatever you wish, Eveley, you know.”
Eveley smiled at her weakly, and turning to take off her wraps saw with surprise that the sleeves were torn almost from her coat.
“I must have come down with quite a bang,” she said faintly, suddenly aware that her shoulders were quivering with pain.
With a little cry of pity, Marie ran to her, and tenderly helped to remove her blouse. The tears ran down her face when she saw the red and swollen shoulders beneath.
“Oh, my poor angel,” she mourned. “All bruised and sore like that. For me. You never should have done it.”
Very sweetly she bathed the shoulders, and when Eveley crept painfully into bed, she arranged soft compresses of cotton and oil for her to lie upon. And she asked, shyly, if she might sit by the bed.
“Until you fall asleep,” she pleaded. “I can not leave you like this, when you are in such pain,—for me.”
“Come and sleep with me, then,” said Eveley. “I do not want to let you go off alone, either, when—something so terrible might have happened to you.”
Eagerly and with great joy Marie availed herself of the privilege, and slipped into her place beside Eveley.