I can
hardly wait to begin that house!"
"Where will it be?" Nick asked, afraid of the answer.
"In California somewhere," she said.
"You mean it?"
"Oh, yes! I don't know where, yet. I'm falling in love with the South now,
but I won't let myself fall too deep in, till I've seen the North."
"If you're in love, _can_ you keep yourself from falling deeper in?" said
Nick. "I don't think I could; I'd sure have to let myself go."
It had been so good to see the forest creature at the moment when he was
needed most, that Angela had melted toward him as snow melts in the spring
sun. She had not only forgiven, but forgotten--for the moment--that there
had been things to forgive; so she answered this question of his, humanly
and simply. "I wonder?" she said. "If it were not a question of a country,
but a person? I can't tell. I've never fallen deep in." Then she pulled
herself up abruptly. "Luncheon must be ready," she went on in a changed
voice. "I'm starving, aren't you?"
"Starving!" Nick answered mechanically. But he was saying in his heart,
"She's never been in love! Hooray!"
The thought shot new colour into existence. "I'll pull the world up by the
roots to get her," he thought. "And she wants to live in California!
Maybe, if I try to make myself all over again, a little worthier--a little
more like what she's used to, at last she----" It seemed sacrilege to
finish the sentence.
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