The cold weather that Darrie and the old settlers had predicted was now descending on the countryside....
One morning Hildreth timidly and haltingly proposed returning to her mother's flat in New York....
I could stay and finish my play and, having disposed of it, come likewise to the city, and rent a flat, and she would come and live with me again. I am sure she was sincere in this. Or I could come to New York, rent a furnished room somewhere, and she would be with me daily, as now....
Darrie seconded Hildreth's proposal.
And yet my heart broke as Hildreth rode off in the carriage that came for her. I kissed her, and I kissed her ... despite the stern, unbending figure of the aged, moral coachman in the seat.
Then, after she had started off, I pursued the carriage, overtook it by a short cut, cried out that I had still something I had forgotten to give her ... it was more kisses ... and I kissed and kissed her again and again.. and we both wept, with aching hearts.
Then the moral coachman unbent.