For the first time since she entered the room his manner changed. Hitherto he had been gruff, defiant, cynically aloof. Now, as she made this appeal, the frown faded from his brow. As she finished he turned his head away. She waited for him to speak, but he did not do so.
“You will sell if you think you ought to, won’t you, Foster?” she urged.
He cleared his throat. “There, there,” he muttered, hastily. “That’s all right, Reliance. I shan’t have to turn you out, I guess. Not yet a while, anyhow. Don’t be frightened about that.”
“I wasn’t frightened—not about myself at all. I just wanted to be sure.”
“Sshh! Sshh! Forget it.... What? Are you going? You don’t make long calls, do you? It has been a good while since you made any—up here.”
“It isn’t any farther from your house to mine than it is from mine to yours. You haven’t been droppin’ in on me very often. Oh, I don’t blame you. I suppose likely I should feel as you do if I were in your place. We are both of us pretty set in our ways.... Well, good-by.”
He rose. He crossed the room, turned back and spoke. What he said came as a tremendous surprise.
“What is the news from—over yonder?” he asked, gruffly.
“Over where? Why!... Do you mean from—from Esther?”
“Yes. I presume likely you get letters, don’t you?”