III.
Mary Carton was locking the harmonium as he went in. She came to meet him with a surprised and joyful air.
“How often I have wished to see you. When did you come? How well you remembered my habits to know where to find me. My dear John, how glad I am to see you.”
“You are the same as when I left, and this room is the same, too.”
“Yes,” she answered, “the same, only I have had some new prints hung up—prints of fruits and leaves and bird-nests. It was only done last week. When people choose pictures and poems for children they choose out such domestic ones. I would not have any of the kind; children are such undomestic animals. But, John, I am so glad to see you in this old schoolhouse again. So little has changed with us here. Some have died and some have been married, and we are all a little older and the trees a little taller.”
“I have come to tell you I am going to be married.”