“Forever is a long time,” he said, smiling, and quoted a stanza of magazine verse they had lately read together.
It began, “How far will you go with me, my love?” Close-held in his arms, Betty answered without a moment of hesitation.
“She smiled at the stile with a sweet disdain;
She scoffed at the bridge and the great oak tree;
And looked me full in the eyes and said:
‘I will go to the end of the lane with thee.’”
The door of the inner room opened and Clint stood on the threshold. “Hello!” he said, surprised.
Betty disengaged herself, blushing. “He’s decided to take me after all, Dad,” she said demurely.
“Hmp! Has he? Kinda looks that way.” Clint gripped Hollister’s hand till it hurt. It was the best he could do just now to show the gratitude he felt for what this man had done.
“That’s not quite the way I put it, sir,” Tug said.