Suddenly Winston looked up, and the care which was stamped upon it fled
from his face when he saw the girl. The dust that lay thick upon his
garments had spared her, and as she sat, patting the restless horse,
with a little smile on her face which showed beneath the big white hat,
something in her dainty freshness reacted upon the tired man's fancy.
He had long borne the stress and the burden, and as he watched her a
longing came upon him, as it had too often for his tranquillity since
he had been at Silverdale, to taste, for a short space of time at
least, a life of leisure and refinement. This woman who had been born
to it could, it seemed to him, lift the man she trusted beyond the
sordid cares of the turmoil to her own high level, and as he waited for
her to speak, a fit of passion shook him. It betrayed itself only by
the sudden hardening of his face.
"It is the first time I have surprised you idle. You were dreaming,"
she said.
Winston smiled a trifle mirthlessly. "I was, but I am afraid the
fulfillment of the dreams is not for me. One is apt to be pulled up
suddenly when he ventures overfar."
"We are inquisitive, you know," said Maud Barrington; "can't you tell
me what they were?"
Winston did not know what impulse swayed him, and afterwards blamed
himself for complying, but the girl's interest compelled him, and he
showed her a little of what was in his heart.
"I fancied I saw Silverdale gorging the elevators with the choicest
wheat," he said.
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