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They passed

down the ravine and over the bridge and up the other side to her street

“Do you think we’ll ever be married?”

“It’s too early to tell, isn’t it?” she said

“I guess you’re right” He bit his lip “Will we go walking again soon?”

“I don’t know I don’t know Let’s wait and see, Jim”

The house was dark, her parents not horavely

“Thanks, Jim, for a really fine day,” she said

“You’re welcome,” he said

They stood there

Then he turned and walked down the steps and across the dark lawn At the far edge of lawn he stopped in the shadows and said, “Good night”

He was alht

IN THE ht, a sound wakened her

She half sat up in bed, trying to hear it again The folks were ho was locked and secure, but it hadn’t been the out at the suo, been a suain, and it was a sound of holloarmth and moist bark and empty, tunnelled tree, and rain outside but comfortable dryness and secretness inside, and it was the sound of bees co upward in the flue of summer into wonderful darkness

And this sound, she realized, putting her hand up in the su fro mouth