Then, when we had seated ourselves on the hillside, facing the conflagration, she turned to me.
"And so you found me, dear. I knew you would, somehow. In my heart I knew you would not fail me. So I waited and waited. The time seemed pitilessly long. I only thought of you once, and that was always. It was cruel we left so suddenly, not even time to say good-bye. I can't tell you how bad I felt about it, but I could not help myself. They dragged me away. They began to be afraid of you, and he bade them leave at once. So in the early morning we started."
"I see, I see." I looked into the pools of her eyes; I sheathed her white hands in my brown ones, thrilling greatly at the contact of them.
"Tell me about it, child. Has he bothered you?"
"Oh, not so much. He thinks he has me safe enough, trapped, awaiting his pleasure. But he's taken up with some woman of the town just now. By-and-bye he'll turn his attention to me."
"Terrible! Terrible! Berna, you wring my heart. How can you talk of such things in that matter-of-fact way—it maddens me."
An odd, hard look ridged the corners of her mouth.
"I don't know. Sometimes I'm surprised at myself how philosophical I'm getting."
"But, Berna, surely nothing in this world would ever make you yield? O, it's horrible! horrible!"
She leaned to me tenderly. She put my arms around her neck; she looked at me till I saw my face mirrored in her eyes.