Page:Saxe Holm's Stories, Series Two.djvu/232

222 you to decide for yourself when the last words have been said, the last kiss taken. There is such a prolongation of the pain of last looks, as at turn after turn of the winding road you discover that you can still see the dear forms on the doorstep, or the gleam of the home through the trees. The authoritative "All aboard" of the conductor, and the pitiless shriek of the steam-engine at the railway station, are mercies for those who find it hard to part. All this I thought as we rode away from the beloved parsonage, looking back and back again between the pink apple-tree tops to the group of loved ones in the door-way. The parting had been singularly brief and quiet. Mrs. Allen's placid brown eyes were full of tears, but her last words were simply, to both Jim and me: "Thee will write, thee will write often;" and the Dominie's voice shook a little as he said, "God keep you, my boys. Remember that this is your home always."

Ally spoke no word; she kissed first me, then Jim, with a swift kiss quite unlike her usual clinging, loving kisses, and then turned her head away and hid it in the lilac boughs. The clusters of purple flowers bent down and rested on her golden Hair as if to soothe her. All I could see of her face was the patient, sweet mouth, which was firmer shut than usual.

And so we went back into the world again: the city, the college, the men, the women, all seemed unspeakably strange, and the strangeness did not