The kitchen door
was open and the waitresses and cooks from town were preparing to depart.
One of the young women came out into the darkness accompanied by a man,
evidently one of the guests. They had both been drinking and stood for a
moment in the darkness with their bodies pressed together. "I wish it were
our wedding night," the man's voice whispered, and the woman laughed. After
a long kiss they went back into the kitchen.
A farm dog appeared and going up to Clara licked her hand. She went around
the house and stood back of a bush in the darkness near where the carriages
were being loaded. Her father with Steve Hunter and his wife came and got
into a carriage. Tom was in an expansive, generous mood. "You know, Steve,
I told you and several others my Clara was engaged to Alfred Buckley," he
said. "Well, I was mistaken. The whole thing was a lie. The truth is I shot
off my mouth without talking to Clara. I had seen them together and now and
then Buckley used to come out here to the house in the evening, although he
never came except when I was here. He told me Clara had promised to marry
him, and like a fool I took his word. I never even asked. That's the kind
of a fool I was and I was a bigger fool to go telling the story. All the
time Clara and Hugh were engaged and I never suspected. They told me about
it to-night."
Clara stood by the bush until she thought the last of the guests had gone.
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