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Page 19
"What is wrong between us? There is something."
"Carley, a man who has been on the verge--as I have been--seldom or never
comes back to happiness. But perhaps--"
"You frighten me," cried Carley, and, rising, she sat upon the arm of his
chair and encircled his neck with her arms. "How can I help if I do not
understand? Am I so miserably little? . . . Glenn, must I tell you? No
woman can live without love. I need to be loved. That's all that's wrong
with me."
"Carley, you are still an imperious, mushy girl," replied Glenn, taking her
into his arms. "I need to be loved, too. But that's not what is wrong with
me. You'll have to find it out yourself."
"You're a dear old Sphinx," she retorted.
"Listen, Carley," he said, earnestly. "About this love-making stuff. Please
don't misunderstand me. I love you. I'm starved for your kisses. But--is it
right to ask them?"
"Right! Aren't we engaged? And don't I want to give them?"
"If I were only sure we'd be married!" he said, in low, tense voice, as if
speaking more to himself.
"Married!" cried Carley, convulsively clasping him. "Of course we'll be
married. Glenn, you wouldn't jilt me?"
"Carley, what I mean is that you might never really marry me," he answered,
seriously.
"Oh, if that's all you need be sure of, Glenn Kilbourne, you may begin to
make love to me now."
It was late when Carley went up to her room. And she was in such a softened
mood, so happy and excited and yet disturbed in mind, that the coldness and
the darkness did not matter in the least. She undressed in pitchy
blackness, stumbling over chair and bed, feeling for what she needed. And
in her mood this unusual proceeding was fun. When ready for bed she opened
the door to take a peep out. Through the dense blackness the waterfall
showed dimly opaque. Carley felt a soft mist wet her face. The low roar of
the falling water seemed to envelop her. Under the cliff wall brooded
impenetrable gloom. But out above the treetops shone great stars,
wonderfully white and radiant and cold, with a piercing contrast to the
deep clear blue of sky. The waterfall hummed into an absolutely dead
silence. It emphasized the silence. Not only cold was it that made Carley
shudder. How lonely, how lost, how hidden this canyon!
Then she hurried to bed, grateful for the warm woolly blankets. Relaxation
and thought brought consciousness of the heat of her blood, the beat and
throb and swell of her heart, of the tumult within her. In the lonely
darkness of her room she might have faced the truth of her strangely
renewed and augmented love for Glenn Kilbourne. But she was more concerned
with her happiness. She had won him back. Her presence, her love had
overcome his restraint. She thrilled in the sweet consciousness of her
woman's conquest. How splendid he was! To hold back physical tenderness,
the simple expressions of love, because he had feared they might unduly
influence her! He had grown in many ways. She must be careful to reach up
to his ideals. That about Flo Hutter's toil-hardened hands! Was that
significance somehow connected with the rift in the lute? For Carley
admitted to herself that there was something amiss, something
incomprehensible, something intangible that obtruded its menace into her
dream of future happiness. Still, what had she to fear, so long as she
could be with Glenn?
And yet there were forced upon her, insistent and perplexing, the
questions--was her love selfish? was she considering him? was she blind to
something he could see? Tomorrow and next day and the days to come held
promise of joyous companionship with Glenn, yet likewise they seemed full
of a portent of trouble for her, or fight and ordeal, of lessons that would
make life significant for her.
CHAPTER III
Carley was awakened by rattling sounds in her room. The raising of sleepy
eyelids disclosed Flo on her knees before the little stove, in the act of
lighting a fire.
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