Page:Honore Willsie--Judith of the godless valley.djvu/230

 "That's what I aim to find out," replied Doug.

Twilight was up on the valley, though Falkner's Peak still glowed crimson in outline, and the Forest Reserve to the east was silver blue, shot with lines of flame. The evening star trembled above Fire Mesa. Up on Dead Line Peak behind them, a pack of coyotes barked.

"We miss you down at the house," said Judith suddenly.

Douglas' heart suddenly lifted. There was a sweetness in Judith's voice that he never before had heard there.

"I miss you, Judith! Every moment of the day I'm missing you. The ache for you in my heart is as much a part of my life as my very heart-throbs."

"I wish you wouldn't, Douglas! I wish you wouldn't! I'm not ready to talk of those things!"

"What do you mean, Judith?"

"I mean that I don't see love as you see it; that even if I did care for any one, I'm not ready to give way to it."

She paused as if she too were struggling to express the inarticulate. "O, I am so disappointed in life! It isn't at all what I thought it would be! People aren't what I dreamed they were. Everything is hard and rough and difficult. I don't like life a bit!"

"I don't like it as it is, either," agreed Douglas. "That's why I'm trying to change it, here in Lost Chief. But I wouldn't change my love for you, no matter how it hurts. That's the one beautiful thing in Lost Chief and in me."

He turned to the face, so dimly rebellious, so vaguely sweet in the dark, and his whole soul was in his steady deep voice.

"Judith, won't you marry me? You are my whole life!"

Judith's voice rose passionately. "Don't talk about