Allthe brilliance and colour and warmth had gone
from it. Wevegot to see if the chimney will draw properly. Emily held out her left
hand withaverted face. But when Dean looked up again his face had
changed.
Well need a dogto keep your cats in
order.
It had been an April day, warm inthe sun, cold in
the shadow. Yes, she had known fear; it looked outof her pictured eyes now in that
dim, furtive light.
But likely she has a sweetmeat stored away in some
pocket of hergown for you. She crushed the unbidden thoughtdown
sternly.
She was no longer sitting in her chair looking on.
She heardthe sea shuddering beyond the dunes. What a difference between her smile
and Mona Lisas, said Dean,looking from one to the other. And surf along the shore,
And in my heart a name My lips shall speak no more. Yethere she is living on this
cheap reprint of Rembrandts canvas.
Not to begetting letters from Dean when he is away
seems strange andunnatural. The walls of the shadowy roomseemed slowly to fade from
her vision. A broken engagement is a very slightthing nowadays.
It is one of the springs when there is a crop of
maple-trees. And something was missing from her laughter.
And cant we arrange to have thespring of Ponce de
Leon over in that corner?
And I feel, as you do, thatshe wouldnt put up with
any nonsense. An old verse from one ofRoberts poems came into her head: Grey rocks
and greyer sea.
With a shiver Emily hurriedly unlocked the door and
stepped in. All over the lawn and garden and old orchard tiny maple-trees havesprung
up by the hundreds. Coming back to life to findeverything changed and all things
made new.
Then I prowled about the hill fields tilllong after
dark, studying the stars with my field-glass.
Cousin Jimmy and Aunt Laura knew that, though no
one elseseemed to notice it. To think of it meant to thinkof the book she had
burned; and THAT hurt beyond bearing. Dean hung a little old miniature of his mother
up over themantelpiece. I sometimes think, he whispered, that its wrong to
preventanything from growing.