Ain't you forgiven me yet ?" Barney made no reply.
"Can't you put your arm around me jest once, Richard ?" she went on.
"You ain't never, an' you've been comin' here a long while.

I've had this sofa ten years." Barney put his arm around her, seemingly with no volition of his own.
"It's six months to-day sence you came last," Sylvia said--"it's six whole months; an' when I see you goin' past to-night, it didn't seem as if I could bear it--it didn't seem as if I could bear it, Richard." Sylvia turned her pale profile closer to Barney's breast and sobbed faintly.

"I've watched so long for you," she sighed out; "all these months I've sat there at the window, strainin' my eyes into the dark.

Oh, you don't know, Richard, you won't never know!" Barney trembled with Sylvia's sobs.

He sat with a serious shamefacedness, his arm around the poor bony waist, staring over the faded fair head, which had never lain on any lover's breast except in dreams.