‘In that case every one’ll see us. You’m all the other way now.’
‘I don’t care who sees us now,’ she said passionately. ‘What does it matter? Let it take its chance! It’s nothing to us. I’m so sick of their talk that it means nothing to me.’
She became thoughtful once more.
‘Abner,’ she said suddenly, ‘tell me truly, when did you first want me?’
Again he teased her.
‘What does that matter?’
‘I want to know,’ she protested.
And he told her of the night at Redlake when he had stood burning in the moonlight beneath the jasmine-covered windows of the inn.
‘I knew, I knew!’ she said softly. ‘I couldn’t sleep that night. The time we’ve lost, us two! Oh, how I hate myself! It was nearly the same with me. Just when we’d missed our way and my legs ached so that I felt I couldn’t walk another step. Poor little Morgan, and the bottle of pop you promised him! And then those strange sea-birds crying up in the dark. Do you remember how I turned on you and told you I hated the sight of you? That was when I loved you. Then and ever since.’
‘We’ve been through something, one time and another,’ he said.