Page:Resurrection Rock (1920).pdf/23

 her traveling bag and bothered over them all evening, finally writing two letters which she gave him and told him to be sure to mail at Fond du Lac. Then she went to bed, leaving a call for ten minutes after four!

When he polished her stout, little tan boots in the night, he observed that they were sound only by grace of resoling and mending; and her overcoat, which he had hung up for her, was of common, heavy wool. Vanished this year was the coat of soft fur which she had worn before in winter.

The porter tapped gently and unwillingly upon the wood partition at the head of lower four. The girl within, who had been lying awake beside her black, uncurtained window, looking up at the bright, winter stars, replied and instantly stirred herself; she drew down the shade, closed the window which she had left open at her feet and turned on her light. Whatever were the reflections and speculations which had been holding her the moment before, she dismissed them; and whereas she had scarcely been conscious of particularly observing the young man in section nine the evening before, this morning she noticed with interest that he also was getting up.

He was on his way home from France, she had heard him say last night in answer to a question; they were in southern Wisconsin then; so Ethel had not thought particularly about his destination. But this morning it was plain that his home must be in the sparsely settled land which she knew well, the region of lake and forest, bays and islands near the Straits; and the more she noticed him this morning, the more she wondered to which of the little towns and villages he was going. Last night, when she casually considered him, she had classified him as much the same sort of young man as