Pagina 439 van 439

"I don't reckon she ever was. Neill took that picture himself. We

were laughing, because I had just been guying them about how

quick they got engaged. She was saying I'd be engaged myself

before six months. And I am. Ain't I?"

She came to him slowly--first, the little outstretched hands, and

then the soft, supple, resilient body. Slowly, too, her sweet

reluctant lips came round to meet his.

"Yes, Steve, I'm yours. I think I always have been, even before I

knew you."

"Even when you hated me?" he asked presently.

"Most of all, when I hated you," She laughed happily. "That was

just another way of love."

"We'll have fifty years to find out all the different ways," the

man promised.

"Fifty years. Oh, Steve!"

She gave a happy little sigh, and nestled closer.