Unleavened Bread

ithout its effect on the company, who had driven off in gay spirits, most of them in hay-carts or other vehicles capable of carrying a party. Their songs and laughter floated back along the wind

and she knew herself to be tacitly acknowledged the smartest girl in Westfield, but perhaps for that very reason she had held aloof from manhood until now. At least no youth in her neighborhood had ever impressed

it had been arranged that he would drive her in the Farley chaise to Clara Morse's wedding. A seven-mile drive is apt to promote or kill the germs of intimacy, and on the way over she had been conscious of enjoying herself

at she mistrusted her ability to shine in any educational capacity, but neither Wilton nor the neighboring Westfield offered better, and she was conscious of a lack of influential friends in the greater world, which was embodied for her in Benham. Benham was a western city of these United States, with an eastern exposure; a growing, bustling city according to rumor, with an eager population restless with new ideas and stimulating ambitions. So at least Selma thought of it, and though Boston and New York and a few other place

her confidence, but her daily consciousness was permeated with them. To be an American meant to be more keenly alive to the responsibility of life than any other citizen of civilization, and to be an American woman meant to be something finer, cleverer, stronger, and purer than any other daughter of Eve. Under the agreeable but sobering influence of this faith she had grown to womanhood, and the heroic deeds of the civil war had served to intensify a belief, the truth of which she had never heard questioned. Her mission in life had promptly been recognized by her as the devel

ate introduction to the avowal he had determined to make. He would never have a better opportunity than this, and it had been his preconceived intention to take advantage of it if all went well. All had gone well and he was going to try. She had been kind coming over; and had seemed to listen with interest as he told her about himself: and somehow he had felt less distant from her. He was not sure what she would say, for he realized that she was above him. That was one reason why he admired her so. S

ed, indicating the disappearance over the brow of a hill of the last of the line o

u?" He snuggled towa

hink I'm lost," she s

n if I were to run away with you and didn't bring you back?" The

least they'd soon get over the shock;

indeed, to play the monster, yet half school-boy, but a man who had done well in his calling

ut it's the burning wish of my heart that you'd marry me some time. I want you to be my wife. I'm a rough fellow along-side of you, Selma, but I'd do well by you; I would. I'm abl

s jauntily, but this was a different matter. She was not to be treated like other women. She was a goddess to him, even in his ardor, and he reached g

ive up my scho

get anothe

ld t

." Emboldened by the obvious feebleness of her opposition, he broad

sat up in the chaise. "Would you let m

over that her mother had chosen her name from a theatrical playbill, and it pa

hands were folded in her lap; there was a wrapt expression on her thin, nervous face, and a glitter in

e, if you'll only marry me. Wh

It's the whole thing. I thought I might find it in my s

ome littl

ent to Benham to live it would be differe

e. You'd like it, and peop

mood had suggested a beautiful, but worried archangel; her full face seemed less this and wore much of the seductive embar

ly with his strong grasp pressed his lips upon her che

that-yet," she s

re mine,-mine. Aren't you, sweeth

y, but her person had hitherto been so sacred to man and to herself that it was difficult not to shrink a little from what was taking place. This then was love, and love was, of course, the sweetest thing in the world. That was one of the truths which she had accepted as she had accepted the beauty of Shakespeare, as so

" he asked, giving her

, Le

rob with joy at the situati

going first-rate and, if it keeps growing for the next year as it has

omise to give the selectmen notice to-mo

luckiest fellow, hooray! in creation. See here," he added, taking her hand, "I gu

ul experience to be hectored with sweetness in this way. How round and bountiful the moon looked. She was tired of h

in her eyes suggested kinship with the unseen and the eternal, he said, admiringly but humbly, "It must be grand t

if some day, I can make you proud o

ou are an angel,

od. What woman can withstand the fascination of a lover's faith that she is an angel? If a man is fool enough to believe it, why undeceive him? And if he is so sure of it, may it even not be