The girl winced a little, but did not speak for a while.
"Well," she said at last, "you must do as you think best. I shall wait all the same. Thank God, there is no law against a woman waiting."
"Carnation, do you mean it?"
The gap was a gap still; but both the lovers were on one side of it, and the night was dark about them. Indeed, they were so close each to the other that there was no need of light.
"If I go, I shall make a home for you!"
"However long it is, I shall be ready when you want me!"
"Carnation!"
"John!"
And so, as it was in the beginning, the old, old tale was retold beneath the breathing rustle of the orchard trees.
Yet their hearts were sore when they parted, because the springtime was so near, and the home they longed for seemed so very far.