He felt, just then, that it was the kindest thing he could do.
He looked back once, just as he was turning into the grade road.

She was standing, her arms folded in her gray blanket, where he had left her.
His fingers tightened involuntarily the reins, so that Keno stopped and eyed his master inquiringly.

But there was nothing that he might say to her.

It was not words that she wanted.

He swung his heels against Keno's flanks, and rode home.
Evadna rallied him upon his moodiness at breakfast, pouted a little because he remained preoccupied under her teasing, and later was deeply offended because he would not tell her where he had been, or what was worrying him.
"I guess you better send word to the doctor he needn't come," the pump man put his head in at the office door to say, just as the freight was pulling away from the water-tank.