Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/144

Rh She broke off, as though the encounter had checked her ardour instead of kindling it; but he drew no discouragement from her tone.

“I hoped you would come before I left—I knew you would!” he exclaimed; and at his last words her face clouded anxiously.

“I didn’t know you were leaving Westmore till yesterday—the day before—I got a letter…" Again she wavered, perceptibly trusting her difﬁculty to him, in the sweet way he had been trying to forget; and he answered with recovered energy: “The great thing is that you should be here.”

She shook her head at his optimism. “What can I do if you go?”

“You can give me a chance, before I go, to tell you a little about some of the loose ends I am leaving.”

“But why are you leaving them? I don’t understand. Is it inevitable?”

“Inevitable,” he returned, with an odd glow of satisfaction in the word; and as her eyes besought him, he added, smiling: “I’ve been dismissed, you see; and from the manager’s standpoint I think I deserved it. But the best part of my work needn’t go with me—and that is what I should like to speak to you about. As assistant manager I can easily be replaced—have been, I understand, already; but among these boys here I should like to think that a little of me stayed [ 130 ]