And being rattled, and seeing the grieved anxiety in her eyes, and knowing how much distress must be tearing at her poor heart, I gulped out that I would put my uncle where he belonged. I was saying to myself that I would see him in tophet before I’d allow his persecution to harm those innocent women, and I came nigh saying that to her in my excitement.
She put out to me both of her hands, and I took them. I tossed all prudence over the rail then.
“If there’s got to be a fight in the Sidney family, then there’ll be one! You tell your mother to sleep easy. I’ll take this thing in hand from now on and I won’t have your father abused by anybody.”
I was talking as big as old Lord Argyle, and I knew I was babbling like a fool—bu t what can’t a girl’s wet eyes do to a fellow’s common, sense?
“We trust you,” she said. “You have made me so happy!”
I bent down and kissed her dear hands, first one and then the other. When I straightened up and saw the flush on her cheeks and the shy pleasure in her eyes I went the limit without stopping to take thought. I put my arms around her and kissed her on the lips—and no honest man can look me squarely in the eye and tell me there’s any memory like the remembrance of the first kiss from one’s own true love! For the first true love is not merely maiden—she has elements of the goddess in her!
Therefore, having presumed so much with a goddess, I was immediately frightened and found myself ready to struggle with apology—and apology did not fit that occasion. So I ran away before I made more of a fool of myself.
“Good night!” I whispered from the gate. “I love you!”
She closed the big door very softly and I gathered good omen from that.
How bright the stars were when I looked at them through my tears! A half-century ago a Yankee poet wrote these verses when he was in love:=