It was his turn to pause. "Yes," he confessed, at length.
"Then tell me."
So he led her down through the tragedy of his youth and the lonely rudderless course of his boyhood. She followed sympathetically to the day when Dr. Hardy and his daughter Irene became guests at the Elden ranch. And then her interest manifested something deeper than sympathy. But he had become engrossed in his narrative… The September day had drawn to a close, and the dusk was thick about them, ere he reached the end. But before the end he stopped. Should he tell her all? Why not? She had opened her life to him. So he told her of that last evening with Irene, and the compact under the trees and the moon. Her hand had fallen into his as they talked, but here he felt it slowly withdrawn. But he was fired with the flame of love which had sprung up in the breath of his reminiscence… And Edith was his friend and his chum.
"And you have been true?" she said, but her voice was distant and strained.
"Yes."
"And you are waiting for her?"
"Yes, I am waiting… It must be so." …
"It is cold," she said. "Let us go home."