“Oh! ... the poor old fellow ... that poor old soldier ... oh! this is too pitiful for anything!... How he must have suffered when he lost her—waiting patiently all those years!...”
She continued to gaze silently at him awhile. Then suddenly, with her wet eyes blazing with her great love, she leaned forward and flung her arms around his neck again with passionate abandon, still clutching the letters.
“Fwas ut for money ye waithed, ye foolish man?” she cried, relapsing into her soft Hibernian brogue as she patted his shoulder caressingly. “Och, glory be! but ’tis glad I am ye didn’t tell me—or show me thim letthers till—till afther!... ’Tis little ye must know av th’ heart av a woman loike me!... Och, me bhoy! me bhoy! ... a pauper I’d have married ye ... an’ loved ye still ... for yersilf alane!”
For answer, Ellis tipped her head back on his arm and kissed her fondly.
“Aye!... I guess you would!” he returned, with a grim chuckle. “And then p’r’aps both of us ’ud have been sorry forever after!... No, my dear! ... when Poverty knocks on the door, Love ‘beats it’ out of the window!... I’ve seen too many of these ‘Love in a shack’ businesses ... everything’s all hunkadory at first ... but it don’t last.... You and I’ve worked long enough for the powers that be.... Now that’s all changed.... You shall never know sorrow or worry again—if I can help it, Mary, my girl!”
Cheek to cheek, they were silent awhile, gazing dreamily across at the distant “Rockies.” Then he continued quietly. “First thing I must get my discharge from the Force. I’ll forward an application to ‘purchase’ tomorrow! Special case ... under the circumstances, I think the O.C.’ll recommend it all right, though as a rule he’s dead against this ‘purchasing’ business ... don’t know but what he isn’t about right, too ... anyway, ‘Isch ga bibble!’... I’ll work it somehow within a month. Then we’ll hit for Europe, Mary. A downright good long easy-going trip ... taking our time and lazying around in all the beautiful old places we’ve read or heard about, and never seen.... Rome, Venice, and some of those old Moorish places in Spain. Then when we’re tired of them and want some amusement and change of scene we’ll go to Paris, or London—see all the best plays and hear all the best singers. Later we’ll go on down through the Mediterranean to the north coast of Africa, and see Tunis and Algiers and Cairo. By and by, when we’re tired of running around, we’ll ‘beat it’ for this country again and settle down on a place of our own. It won’t be a ‘rawnch,’ like the Honorable Percy’s, either.... Guess I know how to run one as it should be run. I know of a peach of a place—sou’west of here—right on the Elbow ... pretty place, too—bush all round it and all kinds of good feed range and shelter. It’s an ideal place for either horses or cattle—horses especially. Belongs to old J. G. Robinson. He’s getting on in years now and wants to quit the game. I know he’d sell out to me—I know him well. It’s the open range and the foothills of ‘Sunny Alberta’ for me and you, Mary dear—somewhere in the West, anyway ... where we can look across at the ‘Rockies’—like we’re doing now. We’d never be happy anywhere else. Of course ... you won’t be cooped up on this precious ranch-in-perspective all the year round ... neither of us, for that matter. It won’t be necessary, for I’m going to try and get Barney Gallagher to come to me as my manager. I fancy I can fix things with him.”
The girl, smiling at his enthusiasm with a little happy ejaculation, shook him impulsively.
“Oh, let’s wake up!” she cried. “Are we only dreaming? ... are you sure this isn’t only just a beautiful dream, from which we’ll wake up presently? I can’t realize it’s all true, yet!”
He tilted her chin up and gazed into the glorious hazel eyes lovingly.
“No, my dear,” he murmured, the hard lines of his somber face softened into an expression of dreamy, quiet peace. “It’s no dream this time. I’m done with my hopeless, empty dreams now! I’m a poor man no longer! Oh, Mary, my girl! My great big splendid-looking wife-to-be! ... how I surely do love you! Promise me you’re going to be very, very happy now, and give me another kiss! We’ll have to be getting back. I don’t want to be getting into Mrs. T’s bad books again,” he added, grinning. “She gave me orders ... very peremptory orders ... but I think I can report that I’ve carried ’em out! Now give that kiss!”