Uncle Cal has told me how breathlessly you called it the 'city.' But
is it as wonderful, now? Hasn't familiarity with real bigness dimmed
its wonder a little?"
For the first time that day his attitude was frankly challenging.
"Maybe," he agreed, "maybe! And maybe I like it better than ever, for
the others I've seen!" He frowned and shook his head. "I'm quite
likely to stick to first conclusions," he finished, "and your inference
is basically wrong. I do not need to look at other women to make me
surer of the wonder of you. A man doesn't have to live in a desert all
his life to know what thirst is, you know. And it's not bad--not bad
as cities go!"
As they had begun the morning they now finished it, on a plane of
thorough comradeship which years and years alone cannot achieve.
"Not bad," she echoed throatily. "Not bad, at all! It's marvelous
too, how towns and people and--and things in general can improve, once
they awake to their own importance in the scheme of things, isn't it?"
Quite on a mutual impulse they clasped hands and laughed into each
other's eyes; quite unnecessarily it may have appeared to the small
group on the veranda of the stucco and timber place halfway down the
slope between them and town. And there on the crest of the hill,
suddenly conscious of those eyes, the girl drew back as swiftly as she
had swung toward him.
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