Page:Willa Cather - The Song of the Lark.djvu/342

 her most glowing face to him. Her eyes were wet and there were tears on her lashes, but she was smiling the rare, whole-hearted smile he had seen once or twice be fore. He looked at her shining eyes, her parted lips, her chin a little lifted. It was as if they were colored by a sunrise he could not see. He put his hand over hers and clasped it with a strength she felt. Her eyelashes trembled, her mouth softened, but her eyes were still brilliant.

"Will you always be like you were down there, if I go with you?" she asked under her breath.

His fingers tightened on hers. "By God, I will!" he muttered.

"That 's the only promise I 'll ask you for. Now go away for a while and let me think about it. Come back at lunch-time and I 'll tell you. Will that do?"

"Anything will do, Thea, if you 'll only let me keep an eye on you. The rest of the world does n't interest me much. You 've got me in deep."

Fred dropped her hand and turned away. As he glanced back from the front end of the observation car, he saw that she was still standing there, and any one would have known that she was brooding over something. The earnestness of her head and shoulders had a certain nobility. He stood looking at her for a moment.

When he reached the forward smoking-car, Fred took a seat at the end, where he could shut the other passengers from his sight. He put on his traveling-cap and sat down wearily, keeping his head near the window. "In any case, I shall help her more than I shall hurt her," he kept saying to himself. He admitted that this was not the only motive which impelled him, but it was one of them. "I 'll make it my business in life to get her on. There 's nothing else I care about so much as seeing her have her chance. She has n't touched her real force yet. She is n't even aware of it. Lord, don't I know something about them? There is n't one of them that has such a depth to draw from. She 'll be