Everything, even her own feelings, must give way to that.
But she was to come back to him without let or hindrance
when her "schooling" was done. It was only on having this
most clearly understood that Sara would consent to go at all.
Her last words, called back to her father through her tears
as she and her aunt drove down the lane, were,
"I'll be back, daddy. In three years I'll be back.
Don't cry, but just look forward to that."
He had looked forward to it through the three long, lonely years
that followed, in all of which he never saw his darling.
Half a continent was between them and Mrs. Adair had vetoed
vacation visits, under some specious pretense. But every week
brought its letter from Sara. Old Man Shaw had every one of them,
tied up with one of her old blue hair ribbons, and kept in her
mother's little rose-wood work-box in the parlour. He spent every
Sunday afternoon re-reading them, with her photograph before him.
He lived alone, refusing to be pestered with kind help,
but he kept the house in beautiful order.
"A better housekeeper than farmer," said White Sands people.
He would have nothing altered. When Sara came back she was
not to be hurt by changes. It never occurred to him that she
might be changed herself.
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