"Jasper?" "Yes, Sairay, it's me. You—you've been sick, I hear."
She bowed her head, unable to speak for the second.
"And you show it too," with an awed look into her lovely face, spiritualized by illness, as he took her extended hand.
"Yes," recovering herself, "but I'm nearly well now—how are they all in
Killamet?"
"Oh, so-so, I guess; but I haven't been home to stay any since last month—soon after Cousin Prue was here, it was. I had business in Norcross yesterday, and I come over from there by train. Mother wrote about your having the fever."
She had motioned him to a chair, and dropped into another herself, feeling weak in body, and perplexed in mind. Why had he come? Was he the answer to her repining thoughts? His voice roused her from the sort of lethargic state into which she had dropped for a moment.
"Sairay," he said, with a little choke, "I—I couldn't stay away any longer—when I heard about you—and I've come"—
He stopped again, but she did not help him out—she could not. With her fingers locked together in her lap, she waited for what was coming, with the feeling that she was drifting down stream, and had neither the strength, nor inclination, to arrest her swift descent. He drew a sigh that was almost a gasp, and plunged on,—
"Sairay, it's too hard for you—all—all this—and I—Oh! you know how I love you—I've always loved you, and what is the use in your working so when I'd give my very eyes to take care of you? Don't speak, Sairay," raising his hand in protest, "I've got a-going, now, and I want to say it all. I know I'm not good enough for you—who is?—but if love that never tires, and kindness, and—and—being as true as steel, and as tender as a mother, can count for anything, they'll plead for me, Sairay; I'm not much on fine speech-making, as you know."
He had risen, and stood before her, tall and stalwart, and, for the moment, such strength and tenderness seemed good to her—why not accept them, and be at rest? Perhaps he felt her yielding mood; at any rate, he held out both hands with an assured gesture.