And she felt--as she had felt all along--even when she had seen him at
his worst--that she must mother him, must help him to build up a new
structure of self, must lift him, must give him what the world had so
far denied him--his chance. And she sat at the table and leaned her
head in her arms and prayed that Toban might overtake him before he
reached the Arrow. For she did not want him to come back to her with
the stain of their blood on his hands.
She was startled while sitting at the table, for she heard a sound from
the sitting-room, and she got up to investigate. But it was only Bob,
who, hearing the sounds made by Toban and herself, had come to
investigate. She urged him to return to his room and to bed, and
kissed him when he started up the stairs, so warmly that he looked at
her in surprise.
She returned to the kitchen, sitting at the table and watching the
clock. A half hour had elapsed since Toban's departure when she heard
the faint beat of hoofs in the distance, and with wildly beating heart
got up and went out on the porch.
For a moment she could not determine the direction from which the
sounds came, but presently she saw a rider approaching from the
direction of the river, and she stepped down from the porch and
advanced to meet him. She feared at first that it was Toban returning
alone, and she halted and stood with clenched hands, but as the rider
came closer she saw it was not Toban but an entire stranger.
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