CHAPTER XXI
WHEREIN PHILIP AMMON RETURNS TO THE LIMBERLOST, AND ELNORA STUDIES THE
SITUATION
"We must be thinking about supper, mother," said Elnora, while she set
the wings of a Cecropia with much care. "It seems as if I can't get
enough to eat, or enough of being at home. I enjoyed that city house. I
don't believe I could have done my work if I had been compelled to walk
back and forth. I thought at first I never wanted to come here again.
Now, I feel as if I could not live anywhere else."
"Elnora," said Mrs. Comstock, "there's some one coming down the road."
"Coming here, do you think?"
"Yes, coming here, I suspect."
Elnora glanced quickly at her mother and then turned to the road as
Philip Ammon reached the gate.
"Careful, mother!" the girl instantly warned. "If you change your
treatment of him a hair's breadth, he will suspect. Come with me to meet
him."
She dropped her work and sprang up.
"Well, of all the delightful surprises!" she cried.
She was a trifle thinner than during the previous summer. On her face
there was a more mature, patient look, but the sun struck her bare head
with the same ray of red gold. She wore one of the old blue gingham
dresses, open at the throat and rolled to the elbows. Mrs. Comstock did
not appear at all the same woman, but Philip saw only Elnora; heard only
her greeting. He caught both hands where she offered but one.
"Elnora," he cried, "if you were engaged to me, and we were at a ball,
among hundreds, where I offended you very much, and didn't even know I
had done anything, and if I asked you before all of them to allow me
to explain, to forgive me, to wait, would your face grow distorted and
unfamiliar with anger? Would you drop my ring on the floor and insult me
repeatedly? Oh Elnora, would you?"
Elnora's big eyes seemed to leap, while her face grew very white.
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