“I’m never too tired to see you,” he said softly. “Besides, I wasn’t a bit anxious to hit the hay anyway.”
He hesitated for a moment and then, summing up enough courage, took her arm as they started down the road past the Mission gate.
“Look at that moon, Panama!” Elinor exclaimed exultantly. “Isn’t it romantic?”
His heart beat faster by leaps and bounds. He thought that now surely was the moment to take her in his arms and whisper all of the things he had been planning to tell her during the six months, but as usual, words failed him and he merely nodded his head, saying, “Yeah, it is sorta nice, ain’t it?”
She sighed deeply and Panama believed she was impatient, waiting for him to speak, though inwardly, she was longing for someone else, a tall, indifferent, handsome boy whose image filled her heart with a million yearnings since the day she had first met him.
They had been walking for more than fifteen minutes with the Marine sergeant remaining inarticulate as ever. Finally Elinor broke the silence by asking where he was taking her.
“Oh, I don’t know,” he replied in a characteristic, blunt fashion. “Any place, it doesn’t matter!”
“Let’s walk down by the tents,” she suggested, hoping that if they went in that direction, Lefty might make a sudden appearance.
“Aw, no,” Williams objected, hoping to keep her on the lonely road so that when he regained his lost courage, there would be no intruders to interrupt their romance. “Let’s keep on goin’ this way, the—er—the scenery is much nicer!”
He stole a sidelong glance at her, fearing that she might further protest to their continuing along the Mission road, but she didn’t speak. Her arm found its way into his and he felt a peculiar sensation up and down his spine.