He was very calm. No matter what he thought or felt, he didn’t intend to drop a word that might disquiet her mind or disturb their tranquil sense of comradeship.
“I expect you to do something some day. You’ll not stay buried down here all your life. You were not born for oblivion.”
“I am afraid you will be disappointed in me. But I’ll do my best.”
She looked down, pulling at the moss on the log.
His going so far away was her first great sorrow.
“I don’t believe I would though if I didn’t have next summer to look forward to; you said you would try to come back then.”
With her simplicity and daring directness she added. “Take good care of yourself, Mr. Glenn, for all the world couldn’t fill your place in my heart.”
“You think that now, Esther. You seem to see something complete in our friendship. It is all you want. A day will come when you’ll understand that it is not satisfying. The mist of morning is on the hills, and hides the outlines of the landscape; you can see but a little way. After awhile it will gradually lift, and give you a clearer and broader view.”
She shook her head.
“I know you can’t see it now. The ripening of your nature will show you the good fruit, and of how little use it was to cry over the pretty petals when it dropped its bloom.”