I have felt it. I have lived it. God
forgive me, but I am almost tempted to go back--to HER!"
He stopped at the change which had come in Jan, who stood as straight
and as still as the blank spruce behind them, with only his eyes
showing that there was life in him. Those eyes held Thornton's. They
burned upon him through the gray gloom as he had never seen human eyes
burn before. He waited, half startled, and Jan spoke. In his voice
there was nothing of that which Thornton saw in his eyes. It was low,
and soft, and though it had that which rung like steel, Thornton could
not have understood or feared it more.
"M'sieur, how far have you gone--WITH HER?" Thornton understood and
advanced with his hands reaching out to Jan.
"Only as far as one might go with the purest thing on earth," he said.
"I have sinned--in loving her, and in letting her love me, but that is
all, Jan Thoreau. I swear that is all!"
"And you are going back into the south?"
"Yes, I am going back into the south."
The next day Thornton did not go. He made no sign of going on the
second day. So it was with the third, the fourth, and the fifth. On
each of these days Jan went once, in the afternoon, to the office of
the sub-commissioner, and Thornton always accompanied him.
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