“You can speak of that now without regret?”
“Sure. It was the finest thing I ever did. I thought I was happy then, but now——”
The unfinished sentence conveyed all he meant to convey. She turned her head until her full red lips came near his. 315
“You kissed me then, Jim. Won’t you kiss me now?”
She felt his great heart throbbing against her bosom as he made haste to fulfill the invitation. If he had dallied in his love-making he lingered in his kissing. The whole world seemed to slide into oblivion in that first passionate love-kiss. She clung to him, wholly and eternally his, conscious of nothing but the close presence of the rough, strong man into whose adoring arms a kindly providence had thrown her.
“By God, I’ll never let you go again!” he hissed.
“By God, I don’t want to,” she retorted, with a merry laugh.
“Over there’s England,” he cried, pointing away to the east.
“And over here’s America—Colorado.”
“Eh?”