"Changed so many things?" he said, half aloud.
"Everything!" Ah, yes, she had changed the whole world for Joseph Louden--at his first sight of her! And now it seemed to him that he was to lose her, but not in the way he had thought.
Almost from the very first, he had the feeling that nothing so beautiful as that she should stay in Canaan could happen to him.He was sure that she was but for the little while, that her coming was like the flying petals of which he had told her.
He had lain upon the earth; and she had lifted him up.For a moment he had felt the beatific wings enfolding him with gentle protection, and then saw them lifted to bear the angel beyond his sight.For it was incredible that the gods so loved Joe Louden that they would make greater gifts to him than this little time with her which they had granted him.
"Changed so many things?"
The bars that had been between him and half of his world were down, shattered, never more to be replaced; and the ban of Canaan was lifted.
Could this have been, save for her? And upon that thought he got to his feet, uttering an exclamation of bitter self-reproach, asking himself angrily what he was doing.He knew how much she gave him, what full measure of her affection!
Was not that enough?--Out upon you, Louden!
Are you to sulk in your tent, dour in the gloom, or to play a man's part, and if she be happy, turn a cheery face upon her joy?
And thus this pilgrim recrossed the bridge, emerging to the street with his head up, smiling, and his shoulders thrown back so that none might see the burden he carried.
Ariel was waiting on the porch for him.She wore the same dress she had worn that Sunday of their tryst; that exquisite dress, with the faint lavender overtint, like the tender colors of the beautiful day he made his own.She had not worn it since, and he was far distant when he caught the first flickering glimpse of her through the lower branches of the maples, but he remembered....