The man’s mild eyes were kept intently fixed on the lightening horizon.
“Two months,” he said, pondering. “And Elia? What of him?”
The girl started. She turned on him, and her pretty eyes were wide with astonishment.
“It will make no difference,” she said, with a sudden coldness she could not have accounted for. “What do you mean?”
Peter’s great shoulders shrugged.
“Why, nothing,” he said. “It kind of seemed a natural question.”
The tone brought immediate contrition to the girl’s warm heart. This man was always kind to her. It would have been difficult to remember a single week since she had lived in Barnriff which had not witnessed at least one small kindness from him. Her eyes wandered over her garden. He had not long finished digging it over for her.
“Of course it was a natural question,” she exclaimed, “only I––well, it doesn’t seem to me as if there could be any question about Elia. Wherever I am, he will be.”
“Just so, just so. He’ll still live with you––you and Will. Y’see, I was only thinking. If––if you wanted a home for him for a while, while you and Will were––honeymooning, now. Why, he’d be real welcome in my shack. He’d want for nothing, and I’d look after him 110 same as––well, not perhaps as well as you could, but I’d do my best. Y’see, Eve, I like the boy. And, and his very weakness makes me want to help him. You know he’d get good food. I’m rather particular about my food, and I cook it myself. He’d have eggs for breakfast, and good bacon, not sow-belly. And there’s no hash in my shanty. The best meat Gay sells, and he could have all the canned truck he liked. Oh, I’d feed him well. And I’ve always got a few dollars for pocket money. Y’see, Eve, folks honeymooning don’t want a third party around, even if he’s a sick boy. I’d take it a real favor if you said ‘yes,’ I would, true. I can look after–––”
The man felt one of her warm hands squeezing his arm with the tenderest pressure. There was a moisture in her eyes as she sought his, but she shook her head.