“What’s a knee or two when you’re starving to death?” demanded Hard, with decision. “Come on, let’s start before I get any stiffer.”
They started out again, through the half darkness; walking slowly, for Hard limped painfully. He had helped himself to a stout staff which he found on the Soria veranda and which gave him some assistance. They were very silent; Hard, because his mind was still running on Clara’s words, Clara, because she was honestly puzzled over the situation, and her own feelings.
She watched the tall, thin figure, limping along by her side, and again the old memories came back, as they had the night before in the darkness; memories of the days when he and she had played at love.
“I wasn’t in love with him, and yet, seeing him again, after all these years, it seems as though I must have been,” she thought, gently. “It’s friendship, and yet it’s more than friendship. It’s going to hurt dreadfully to go away again.”
“Clara, one more word before we drop the subject; because I will drop it if it troubles you.” Hard’s voice came quietly through the darkness. “Don’t let us mistake each other again. I’ve tortured myself for fifteen years, wondering whether I should have let you go as I did, or have tried to hold you. Do you think, with fifteen years behind us, that we made a mistake?”
Clara’s voice trembled as she answered: “No, Henry, I don’t. We were too young to understand each other. We needed experience—at least, I did. I don’t know,” she added, with a shadow of a laugh, “whether it’s the romantic situation, my enfeebled condition, or your noble heroism, but I never felt more like being in love with you than I do this minute.”
“Honestly, Clara?”
“Honestly, Henry. If you give out on the road I shall try to emulate that husky woman in history who carried her husband on her back, do you remember?” Then, suddenly, her eyes filled with tears. “Henry, you’ve been awfully patient with me. If you really want to embark on the seas of matrimony with such a shaky thing as I am——”
“Clara, I never thought it would come about like this or I would have smashed this cussed knee ages ago! My dearest girl, my face is dirty and yours is dirtier, but I’m going to kiss you, and then we’ll take another whack at hobbling to Casa Grande.”
The ranch-house stood dark and uninviting except for the dim light of the fire which shone through the broken windows of the living-room, but the sound of the piano came to their ears as they neared it.