"How does it sound, you and me making a home
together?" Lite was growing pale, and his hands

trembled. "Tell me."
"It sounds--good," said Jean unsteadily.

For several minutes Lite did not say a word. They
sat there holding hands quite foolishly, and stared out

at the drenched desert.
"Soon as your dad comes," he said at last, very

simply, "we'll be married." He was silent another minute,
and added under his breath like a prayer, "And

we'll all go--home."
CHAPTER XXVI

HOW HAPPINESS RETURNED TO THE LAZY A
When Lite rapped with his knuckles on the door

of the room where she was waiting, Jean stood
with her hands pressed tightly over her face, every

muscle rigid with the restraint she was putting upon
herself. For Lite this three-day interval had been too

full of going here and there, attending to the manifold
details of untangling the various threads of their broken

life-pattern, for him to feel the suspense which Jean
had suffered. She had not done much. She had

waited. And now, with Lite and her dad standing
outside the door, she almost dreaded the meeting. But

she took a deep breath and walked to the door and
opened it.

"Hello, dad," she cried with a nervous gaiety.
"Give your dear daughter a kiss!" She had not

meant to say that at all.
Tall and gaunt and gray and old; lines etched deep

ground his bitter mouth; pale with the tragic prison
pallor; looking out at the world with the somber eyes

of one who has suffered most cruelly,--Aleck Douglas
put out his thin, shaking arms and held her close. He

did not say anything at all; and the kiss she asked for
he laid softly upon her hair.

Lite stood in the doorway and looked at the two of
them for a moment. "I'm going down to see about--

things. I'll be back in a little while. And, Jean, will
you be ready?"

Jean looked up at him understandingly, and with
a certain shyness in her eyes. "If it's all right with

dad," she told him, "I'll be ready."
"Lite's a man!" Aleck stated unsmilingly, with a

trace of that apathy which had hurt Jean so in the
warden's office. "I'm glad you'll have him to take care

of you, Jean."
So Lite closed the door softly and went away and

left those two alone.
In a very few words I can tell you the rest. There

were a few things to adjust, and a few arrangements to
make. The greatest adjustment, perhaps, was when

Jean begged off from that contract with the Great
Western Company. Dewitt did not want to let her go,

but he had read a marked article in a Montana paper
that Lite mailed to him in advance of their return, and

he realized that some things are greater even than the
needs of a motion-picture company. He was very nice,

therefore, to Jean. He told her by all means to consider
herself free to give her time wholly to her father

--and her husband. He also congratulated Lite in
terms that made Jean blush and beat a hurried retreat

from his office, and that made Lite grin all the way to
the hotel. So the public lost Jean of the Lazy A

almost as soon as it had learned to welcome her.
Then there was Pard, that had to leave the little

buckskin and take that nerve-racking trip back to the
Lazy A. Lite attended to that with perfect calm and

a good deal of inner elation. So that detail was soon
adjusted.

At the Lazy A there was a great deal to do before the
traces of its tragedy were wiped out. We'll have to

leave them doing that work, which was only a matter
of time, after all, and not nearly so hard to accomplish

as their attempts to wipe out from Aleck's soul the black
scar of those three years. I think, on the whole, we

shall leave them doing that work, too. As much as
human love and happiness could do toward wiping out

the bitterness they would accomplish, you may be sure,
--give them time enough.

End

• breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
• waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
• interval [´intəvəl] n.间隙；(工间)休息 (初中英语单词)
• nervous [´nə:vəs] a.神经的；神经过敏的 (初中英语单词)
• softly [´sɔftli] ad.软化地；柔和地 (初中英语单词)
• doorway [´dɔ:wei] n.门口 (初中英语单词)
• adjust [ə´dʒʌst] vt.调整；校准；使适应 (初中英语单词)
• wholly [´həul-li] ad.完全，十足；统统 (初中英语单词)
• welcome [´welkəm] a.受欢迎的；可喜的 (初中英语单词)
• tragedy [´trædʒidi] n.悲剧；惨案；灾难 (初中英语单词)
• tightly [´taitli] ad.紧，紧密地 (高中英语单词)
• restraint [ri´streint] n.抑制；管束；克制 (高中英语单词)
• tragic [´trædʒik] a.悲剧的；悲惨的 (高中英语单词)
• adjustment [ə´dʒʌstmənt] n.调整；适应；调解 (高中英语单词)
• hurried [´hʌrid] a.仓促的，慌忙的 (高中英语单词)
• learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
• bitterness [´bitənis] n.苦味；辛酸；苦难 (高中英语单词)
• somber [´sɔmbə] a.昏暗的；忧郁的 (英语四级单词)
• montana [mɔn´tænə] n.蒙大拿 (英语四级单词)
• holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 (英语六级单词)
• foolishly [´fu:liʃli] ad.愚蠢地 (英语六级单词)
• suspense [sə´spens] n.悬挂；悬虑不安 (英语六级单词)
• apathy [´æpəθi] n.缺乏感情；冷淡 (英语六级单词)