Elizabeth Garver Jordan

“ His simple faith touched and silenced the newspaper woman.
"Let him dream," she said to herself. "After all, it can do no harm. It is n't the woman he loves; it's what he thinks she is. Such an ideal in his life may be a good influence. It would even up matters a little if his love for Dolorita brought out the best that is in him. The same influence has brought out the worst there was in others, often enough."
She wandered out of the cabin and into the clearing before it, where she rested her elbows on the top round of the log fence and gave herself up to the charm of the scene about her. ”

“ Few women could realize your dream of her—least of all Dolorita. She is not in one single respect what you think she is. You are a strong man. You could not show your strength in a finer way than by uprooting this woman from your mind and heart. Forget her. There are sweet true girls here among the mountains. There is surely one among them who could make you happy. Do as your father and grandfathers have done before you. Marry and live here in your mountains contentedly among your own people. ”

“ If they are worth nothing, the world is better rid of them."
Miss Herrick looked at the white-haired mountain woman, meditative in the firelight, and told herself that Nancy Willis, who could neither read nor write, was more fortunate than many a rich and worldly mother of her acquaintance. She had her fair, clean-souled boy buried safe among the mountains, living the free outdoor life of a young faun. It was a far cry from New York to these Virginia peaks. Surely even Dolorita's malignant influence could not blast him here. ”

“ She hurried away, and Dolorita looked after her, an odd expression on her beautiful selfish face.
"She did me a good turn once," she said to her maid, in Spanish, "when she published my answer to that Van Dreer story. Now we are quits. But she is a good woman, and so she would never have believed me if I had told her the truth. I shocked him purposely, and I sent him away—because she asked it. A woman like myself would believe that I might sometimes have a good impulse,—but not Miss Herrick. Good women are always hard on us—bad ones. ”

“ Men and women say what they do not think and act what they do not feel, and we call it refinement and cultivation and civilization. It is not so with all, thank Heaven. Some are honest and true, and they keep alive in us the spirit of brotherhood that we all need. But the lack of more universal sincerity and loyalty makes life very hard for us sometimes. We are deceived in the persons we love, and we find out that we have loved not them, but what we thought they were. That is your case. You have thought and dreamed about this woman for six years. ”

“ The's a lot uv comfort in puttin' up a cabin fer the right woman. Andy's doin' it naow. He's makin chairs fer it, 'n I help him when I kin. But I ain't never seed but one woman I 'lowed I'd like to make a home fer—an' thet's Her."
Miss Herrick changed her position restlessly. The situation touched her sympathies, but she was keenly conscious of its grotesque side. Before her mind's eye came a sudden vision of Dolorita as she had last seen her,—soft exquisite animal, in the luxurious lair she had made for herself. ”

“ Father 'lows we don't gain much by the experience uv others," continued this novice philosopher of the mountains, "’n I reckon he's right. It's too late t' talk abaout uprootin' the liking I have fer Her. Ye might ez well tell me t' uproot thet tree 'ith m' hands."
He indicated a sturdy oak near them as he spoke.
"I reckon I 'll give her th' chanst t' send me back yere, ef she wants ter," he concluded proudly. "Does she live in N' York naouw? Th' traveller man 'lowed she wuz thar most uv th' time."
"She comes every year," admitted Miss Herrick. "Yes ”

“ Then he looked down at her, a slow smile transfiguring his face.
"You 'uns is good t' tell me right out whut ye think," he said gratefully. "But I reckon it's best fer me t' find aout things fer m'self. ”