“Oh, Nat! Nat! how I doubted her! She is so good!”
He put his arms about her, and she snuggled up against the bearskin coat.
“Say! how about me?” he demanded huskily. “Now that the Widder White has asked you to be her daughter-in-law, don’t I come into the picture at all?”
Tavia raised her head, looked at him searchingly, and suddenly laid her lips against his eager ones.
“You’re—you’re the whole picture for me, Nat!” she breathed.
CHAPTER XXIX
SOMETHING AMAZING
Now that Garry Knapp had left The Cedars—had passed out of her life forever perhaps—Dorothy Dale found herself in a much disturbed state of mind. She did not wish to sit and think over her situation. If she did she knew she would break down.
She was tempted—oh! sorely tempted—to write Garry Knapp all that was in her heart. Her cheeks burned when she thought of doing such a thing; yet, after all, she was fighting for happiness and as she saw it receding from her she grew desperate.
But Dorothy Dale had gone as far as she could. She had done her best to bring the man she loved into line with her own thought. She had the satisfaction of believing he felt toward her as she did toward him. But there matters stood; she could do no more. She did not let her mind dwell upon this state of affairs; she could not and retain that calm expected of Dorothy Dale by the rest of the family at The Cedars. It is what is expected of us that we accomplish, after all. She had never been in the habit of giving away to her feelings, even as a schoolgirl. Much more was expected of her now.
The older people about her were, of course, sympathetic. She would have been glad to get away from them for that very reason. Whenever Tavia looked at her Dorothy saw commiseration in her eyes. So, too, with Aunt Winnie and the major. Dorothy turned with relief to her brothers who had not much thought for anything but fun and frolic.