Next morning, as every morning, the awakening
was sweet, fresh, new,hopeful. Margarita, I do not trifle, replied Adam,
earnestly.
Adam went back to his unpacking,conscious of a
sobered enthusiasm.
He was invited aboard the boat to have lunch
with the mother anddaughter. MacKay opened his eyes to the great health for
mind andbody in sheer toil. Also he was aware of one quick all-embracingglance.
Adam tried not to look at anyof the women while they looked at
him.
Adam had not been prepared for such a
spectacle of grandeur anddesolation.
A hard, cruel, beautiful tree of thornsthat at
a little distance resembled smoke!
The dusky eyes shone with avastly different
light from the lurid hate of a few hours back. He found the old fisherman in
precisely the same posture.
MacKay opened his eyes to the great health for
mind andbody in sheer toil.
Next morning, as every morning, the awakening
was sweet, fresh, new,hopeful.
He knew he wouldnever make such a resolve
again. Senor, no woman ever thinks when love is in her heart and on her lips.
But I seem to have been freedfrom a cage. The walk was long and, byreason of
the heavy, dragging sand, one of considerable labour. Upon examination Adam was
amazed to discover that every branch andtwig of this tree was a thorn. So thats
it, ejaculated Adam, and he whistled his surprise. Palo Christi, murmured
Margarita, making the sign of the cross. This fact might have been manifest to
hisfellow workers, but it was not that which counted. Such a little girl, such
a frail strength, such a deficient brain to holdall that passion! Andthere was
more, too deep and too subtle for him to divine. Id not be afraid to back you
against it if you meetit right. He andMargarita reached home without seeing any
sign of Felix.
Let senor swear he love me, she demanded,
imperiously.
At last Arallanes announced thatthey were
home. In moving away, Margarita, who was lookingback, caught her hair in a
thorny branch of the mesquite. But it was not his duty to ambush the Mexican
who would ambushhim. This fact might have been manifest to hisfellow workers,
but it was not that which counted.
But I seem to have been freedfrom a
cage.
Margarita wasstill an unknown quantity in
Adams development.