“Don’t be absurd, Ralph; your reaching out was involuntary. Besides, you hardly touched me. Anyone would have done what you did without thinking. There was no time, and I would not have fallen as you hardly touched me, except that the ground also gave way under my feet.”
“You are a good sport, Peggy, but it scarcely needs me to tell you so.”
Peppy turned toward her companion with one of her clearest and most straightforward expressions.
“I like to hear you say so though, Ralph,” she answered.
Then, in order to change the young man’s train of thought, she stared at the great mountains of color up above them and then at the deeper one at their feet.
“Do you suppose life is as wonderful and as beautiful a journey, Ralph, as the climb through this canyon?”
Ralph returned her gaze steadily.
“I think it will be for you, Peggy, I wish I were as certain for myself. But we shall be reaching the end of the trail into the canyon tomorrow. May I wish we may be good friends to the end of a longer trail?”
Peggy had only time to answer, “yes,” when Mrs. Burton, coming to the door, called her into their little lodging for the night.