“But sometimes,” with a sudden wistfulness, “there is something here which talks; and I can’t quite understand it!” She pressed her two hands tightly upon her breast. “When I have everything here, how can there be anything lacking? When the world is so big, how can it seem so little? When the day is so filled with good things, how can it seem so empty? When I am so happy, how can I be, all of a sudden, so sad? When I am laughing, why do I want to cry——?”
He told her, too, of his own life; of the schools he had gone to; of his work in cities of the East; of the command to go West for his health as her father had done; of the fever of gold. But he said no word of his partner—he could not speak of that, yet. Nor did he mention the Cup of Gold, saying merely that he had pushed into these mountains, into her valley, prospecting.
“But you said,” she reminded him frankly, “that you were looking for some one?”
“Yes,” he admitted, turning from her clear eyes to the door. “I will tell you about that some other time.”
He questioned her about her father; and she, glad to find other ears than the inattentive ones of her woodland friends, spoke unreservedly.
He was a wonderful man, this James Dalton, this “dear old Daddy.” A wonderful man to look at: big, mighty of his hands, handsome, a full-bearded giant. With a great tender heart, too, forgetful at all times of self, striving only for his daughter’s good and happiness, doing all of the thousand and one little things to please her, to make life run smoothly and brightly for her.
He had filled the long hours with instruction, had taught her to read and write, had read to her from the few books which had come with them into their exile. He had drawn pictures of busy cities with their factories and hotels, their churches and stores, and he had promised her that one day he would take her with him to see these marvelous things with her own eyes.
“And now,” she ended, her eyes luminous with the dreamings of a golden fairyland whose gates were to be thrown open to her, “now we are going to see it all, very soon.”
She fell suddenly silent, looking beyond the far horizon where her fancies led her.