“They are yours, Eve,” I said, “for they were mine and I am yours. See the colors the old sun spreads over them now. He is almost sitting on that hill.”
“We will bid him good-night, together,” she said; “a happy one, Adam. Stand beside me.”
So we stood, and she clasped my fingers close in hers, and we saw the sun, that he spread the still water with all manner of reds and purples and shimmering greens. And as the last thin line of red vanished behind the bearded hill, we saluted. And again we sat upon the bank, and saw the red west turn to violet, and then to green. And then Eve rose and said good-night.
“Until to-morrow, Adam,” she said.
“Until to-morrow, Eve,” I echoed.
And then she seemed to listen.
“They are coming for me, Adam. If you love me, run!”
II
A DAUGHTER OF THE RICH
A DAUGHTER OF THE RICH
SOME there may be who will say—who do say, no doubt, for they dearly love a bit of gossip—that I am no better than an adventurer; that I have wormed my way into a girl’s heart under false pretenses, and will but devour what I find there; and that two weeks—or three, or whatever the time was, according to the usual measure of man—is too short a time for two people to have found out that they love each other. Now, those who are most apt to speak thus foolishly are my neighbors, who have mated according to their lights; and I have not observed that they are happier than other folk. Indeed, I doubt whether they are as happy.