Above, the roof rose to a sharp angle, and the low,
unplastered walls were covered with pietures cut from the books
he had given her. A single window opened into the night over the
valley and to the mountains beyond. Two small cane-bottom chairs
were near this, and in these they sat down. In the east dark clouds
were moving swiftly across the face of the moon, checking its light
anJ giving the dim valley startling depth and blackness.
Rain-drops struck the roof at intervals, a shower of apple-blossoms
rustled against the window and drifted on, and below the muffled
sound of music and shuffling feet was now and then pierced by the
shrill calls of the prompter. There was something ominous in the
persistent tread of feet and the steady flight of the gloomy clouds,
and quivering with vague fears, Easter sank down from her chair to
Clayton's feet, and burst into tears, as he put his arms tenderly
about her.
Has he ever treated you badly?
" No, no," she answered; "it's only the whiskey."
It was not alone of her father's behavior that she was thinking.
Memories were busy within her, and a thousand threads of feeling
were tightening her love of home, the only home she had ever
known. Now she was leaving it for a strange world of which she
knew nothing, and the thought pierced her like a physical pain.
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