He turned and paced the room for several minutes, then came back to her side.
"And I—am I right to go and leave you thus?—alone—unprotected, if—"
She looked up with a great courage in her noble face. "Yes, go, Kenneth; I do not fear, and it is best for you and for him. You forget how fully we have both been convinced of that."
"How brave you are, how strong in faith!" he cried admiringly.
She shook her head in dissent. "You do not know how my heart fails me at times when I think of my dear boy far away in that Northwestern Territory fighting his battle with the world among strangers, often exposed to the pitiless storms, or in danger from wild beasts or savage Indians; coming home from his long rides over prairies and through forests, wet, cold, and weary, and finding no one to cheer him and comfort him."
There were tears in her eyes and in her voice.
"Don't be troubled about me," Kenneth said cheerily, "I am young and vigorous, and shall rather enjoy roughing it, in the pursuit of my calling?"
"A noble calling to one who follows it in the right spirit, Kenneth. Your arrangements are all completed?"
"Yes; we meet at the cross-roads an hour after sunrise."
She gave him a troubled, anxious look, opened her lips as if to speak, then closed them again.