Olive Higgins Prouty

“ At the end of the five minutes the hand that held the note dropped to the soldier's side, and the eyes that had gazed so intently at Reba's summons sought with the same fixed attention the faraway green hills of Vermont.
But they did not see those hills. They saw only that row of Please come's. There were three of them, and each one had gone through Nathan like a sweet sharp caress. Each one had been like that last kiss of Rebecca's in the station—only not so shy, not so fleeting and soon over. "Please come," she had said three times over. ”

“ She was on the verge of folding up her letter, preparatory to making some such speech when the soldier addressed her.
It was Nathan who spoke first. He didn't mean to. Her name came out all by itself. "Rebecca!" he exclaimed suddenly. He couldn't wait any longer. "Rebecca!" he repeated in a low voice, leaning toward her.
He wouldn't have frightened her for anything in the world, and he knew the moment she glanced up at him that he had frightened her. There was a startled, unprepared expression on her face. Moreover, she was evidently unable to speak. ”

“ I've got rid of that chap for you, Rebecca, drugged him, asphyxiated him, put him to sleep. He doesn't exist any more."
Reba murmured, "I didn't marry him out of pity."
"Well, all right. You have it your way. He isn't around any more to argue with you about it. It doesn't matter."
Reba glanced away. Her eyes followed a squirrel darting up the trunk of a tree. She had herself well under control now. She ought to, she should think. She had had time enough. ”

“ We're strangers, you and I. Somebody just introduced us to each other a day or two ago. We've got only as far as first names. But I want very much to get further. Oh, I do want to know you better, I want you to know me better. But I don't want to know you any faster than is proper for two people who've got only as far as we have. Don't you see? Don't you understand?"
It was Nathan's voice that caught and broke now. As he leaned toward her, Reba saw that his forehead was damp with perspiration. She could hear him breathing. ”

“ Reba glanced down at the bag beside her. "Then of course you'd like your rings back, too," she said, in a little hard strained voice. "I've got only the wedding-ring here with me," she went on, drawing off her glove, "I'll have to send you the other one. I didn't wear it after what you wrote it meant." She began struggling with the heavy gold band on the third finger of her left hand.
Nathan made a little negative motion. "I don't want it. I believe a married woman usually wears her husband's ring, doesn't she, even if he's dead, as long as she bears his name. ”

“ She had come ready, steeled for the uncouth sailor, and instead a fine stranger in uniform—an officer, she believed, (didn't two bars mean a captain?) —spoke with Nathan's voice, smiled with Nathan's smile, but wasn't like Nathan at all. She took out a handkerchief from her bag, and pressed it up against her lips hard, holding her teeth steady.
"I didn't mean to frighten you," she heard the officer saying to her, solicitously. "I'm sorry. It isn't a joke. I didn't mean to frighten you."
"I'm not frightened," she managed to murmur through her tightly closed teeth. They mustn't chatter! ”

“ If one dared, one could stroke her, and feel the curves! Yes, she was like one of the little gray captive fawns Nathan used to like to stroke when he was a boy. A neighboring farmer had caught a couple of them once and kept them for pets. There was something white at Rebecca's throat. It fluttered in the breeze and buried her chin in snowy froth as she bent over her letter. It pressed an edge of transparent lace close against her cheek. As Nathan sat and stared at the lace he thought he saw the color of her cheek beneath it deepen.
Reba was fearfully afraid her color was deepening. ”

“ It had just struck half-past four.
"I think I know what you mean," she said gravely. ("If the man I married doesn't exist for me any more, then I don't exist for him," she was thinking. "That's what he's trying to tell me as delicately as possible.") ”