"I
thought as much. But I suppose I'm to take it that you did it solely
because she was 'Susquehanna'--not because--"
"Certainly because she was her lovely self, cool and sweet and a
glorious colour, and she reminded me--of other roses I had known.
Flowers to a convalescent are only just a little less reviving than
food. 'Susquehanna' cheered me on toward victory."
"Then she died happy, I'm sure."
He would have enjoyed keeping it up with nonsense of this pleasurable
sort, but as soon as Anne was back in the car she somehow turned him
aside upon quite different ground, just how he could not tell. He found
himself led on to talk about his work, and he could not discover in her
questioning a trace of anything but genuine interest. No man, however
modest about himself, finds it altogether distressing to have to tell a
charming girl some of his more exciting experiences. In the days of his
early apprenticeship King had spent many months with a contracting
engineer of reputation, who was executing a notable piece of work in a
wild and even dangerous country, and the young man's memory was full of
adventures connected with that period. In contrast with his present
work, which was of a much more prosaic sort, it formed a chapter in his
history to which it stirred him even yet to turn back, and at Anne's
request he was soon launched upon it.
So the afternoon passed amidst the sights and sounds of the September
country.
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