“Good-bye, Faith,” he said, and his trembling voice was the gentlest of caresses. He started swiftly away down the path.
The girl listened a moment to the retreating steps, then raised a tear-stained face above her arms.
“Guy!” she called chokingly, “Guy!”
The man quickened his steps at the sound, but did not turn.
The girl sprang to her feet.
“Oh, Guy! Guy!” pleadingly, desperately. “Guy!”
The man had reached the open. With a motion that was almost insane, he clapped his hands over his ears, and ran blindly down the dusty path until he was tired, then dropped hopelessly by the roadside.
Overhead the big cottonwoods whispered 41 softly in the starlight, and a solitary catbird sang its lonely night song.
The man flung his arms around the big, friendly tree, and sobbed wildly––as the girl had sobbed.
“Oh, Faith!” he groaned.