Then he stood aside.
But she did not appear in a hurry to avail herself of the freedom offered,
she simply looked at him. He took off his cap sheepishly enough,
and said, "Good-evenin'."
"Good-evenin'," she said, and then, as the pause became embarrassing,
she said, "Hear you're agoin' away to-morrer?"
"Yes -- to-morrer mornin'."
"When you're acomin' back?" she asked, after a pause
in which she had been twisting the pink string of her hat.
"Don't know -- may be never." Had he been looking at her he might have seen
the change which his words brought to her face; she lifted her eyes
to his face for the first time since the half defiant glance she had given him
when they met, and they had a strange light in them, but at the moment
he was looking at a bow on her dress which had been pulled loose.
He put out his hand and touched it and said:
"You're a-losin' yer bow," and as she found a pin and fastened it again,
he added, "An' I don' know as anybody keers."
An overpowering impulse changed her and forced her to say:
"I don't know as anybody does either; I know as I don't."
The look on his face smote her, and the spark died out of her eyes
as he said, slowly: "No, I knowed you didn'! I don't know as anybody does,
exceptin' my old woman.
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