He stopped himself and found her with cheeks flushed in her effort to keep up with him.
"Pardon me," he exclaimed, "I did n't realize. I was going pretty fast. Let's sit down and rest a minute."
"It is n't necessary if you will only slow down a little."
"I will." He smiled. "My thoughts were going even faster than my legs. We 'll rest a little, anyhow."
They seated themselves beneath a roadside pine which had sprinkled the ground with redolent brown needles. He wiped his hot forehead. The undulating green fields throbbed before his excited eyes, as in midsummer when they glimmer from the heat rays. He burrowed his tightened fists to the cooler soil below the brown carpet.
"I guess you are glad to sit down a moment yourself," she suggested, noting his forced deep breathing. "Your efforts with Ben tired you more than you thought."
"I 'd like to have that chance over again—now."
His tense long body looked like Force incarnate. She caught her breath quickly.
"I 'm glad you have n't," she gasped.
She had the feeling that he could have picked up the boy and hurled him like a bit of wood into the road. She was not frightened. She liked to see him in such a mood. It gave her, somehow, a big sense of safety. It swept away all those haunting fears which had so long been always present in the background of her consciousness. It did this in as impersonal a way as the sun scatters shadows.