He looked over her shoulder
through the west window and his eye rested on Bland's cabin, where
another woman lived who had once nestled in his arms and talked of
happiness. Yes, he was conscious of the shadow, of regrets, of
something else that was nameless and indefinable,--a shadow. Something
that was not and yet still might be troubled him vaguely.
He could not tell why. Presently he dismissed it from his mind.
CHAPTER XII
Hollister likened himself and Doris, more than once in the next few
days, to two children in a nursery full of new toys. He watched the
pride and delight which Doris bestowed upon her house and all that it
contained, the satisfaction with which she would dwell upon the
comforts and luxuries that should be added to it when the cedars on
the hill began to produce revenue for them.
For his own part he found himself eager for work, taking a pleasure
far beyond his expectation in what he had set himself to do, here in
the valley of the Toba. He could shut his eyes and see the whole plan
work out in ordered sequence,--the bolt chute repaired, the ancient
cedars felled, sawed into four-foot lengths, split to a size, piled by
the chute and all its lateral branches.
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