TWO:Reuben did not speak. His hands were clenched on the arms of his chair, and for the first time Rose noticed that he looked old. A faint feeling of disgust came over her. She shivered, and took a step backwards as if she would leave him. Then her warm good nature and her gratitude to the man who had made her so happy, drove away the unnatural mood. She came close, and slipped her soft arms round his neck, pressing her lips to his.He turned from them sharply, and threw himself down on the dead bracken. Then suddenly the hunger passed. The reek of the moist earth rose up in his nostrils; it was the scent of his love, who was sweeter to him than ever Naomi was to Harry. His hand stole over the short, mould-smelling grass, caressing it. He had a love more beautiful than Harry's, whose comeliness would stay unwithered through the years, whose fruitfulness would make him great, whose allure was salted with a hundred dangers.... His fingers dug themselves into the earth, and he embraced Boarzell with wide-flung trembling arms. "My land!" he cried"mine!mine!"
FORE:In the autumn Reuben bought ten more acres of Boarzella better piece of land than the first, more sheltered, with more clay in the soil. Hops would do well on the lower part of it down by the brook."What ails thee, my son," asked Edith. "Is she not thy wife?and can the baron break asunder the bonds that bind ye?or dost thou fear that Margaret's face may please himand that he would strive to take from the man who saved his life in the battle, the wife of his bosom! Shame! shame!"
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Nunc at viverra risus.