Blue Ruin Read Online Free PDF

was able to bring notable critics as testimony to substantiate his theory. In short, as she listened, Lynette perceived that this was no longer her mate and equal, her boy companion of the years, to whom she was giving audience, but a distinguished scholar who had already made his mark before his career had fairly opened.
    Lynette’s heart was full of joy.
    She forgot for the time-being his criticism of herself.
    They had passed by the embroidered pastures and valleys, leaving the blue-flowered smoke behind on the mountain, and as they went up higher into a thick grove of trees bordered by fringes of maidenhair fern unbelievably luxuriant, fragilely lovely, Lynette was conscious of a tightening of the muscles round her heart. To think that he was hers, and they were here in sanctuary as it were, alone with the great out of doors to talk together again and get to know the things about one another that had been withheld through the months of separation!
    Her eyes rested pridefully upon him as he tossed off his hat and threw himself down upon the moss at her side, and she was conscious again of the quickening heartbeats, the sudden shyness that made her fight for time—just a little space to get used to his nearness again, to the thought that they were really grown up.
    “Tell me something, Dana, I’ve often wondered,” she said, suddenly feeling the necessity to cover her shyness with words.
    “Yes, dearest!” He smiled down upon her and reached out to take possession of her hand which lay beside him on the moss. It was his first open acknowledgment of the relation between them, which had been tacitly set aside for years of their education, the first time he had ventured on that “dearest” since his very young boy affection which she had gravely restrained with wiser foresight than his own. “We are not old enough for such things yet, Dana, please don’t spoil the beautiful time we are having now,” she had told him. How well she remembered saying it to him, and having to argue it out for days when he would not be convinced. Yet in the end she had conquered, and their friendship had gone on, with only the tacit understanding that there was to be no more sentimentality until they were done with schooldays. Nevertheless they had both looked forward to living their lives side by side to the end and had often referred to the time when that would be as if it were a foregone conclusion.
    Dana had wanted to give her a ring two years before, the day he was going back to seminary and she to her college. But she had said no, he must not spend the money now, and it would be time enough to settle those things when they both got home for good.
    Lynette had known when she came home this time that she was coming home to face what she had put behind a lovely veil out of sight for a long time, but had always deep in her heart known was waiting there for her when the right time came. Today, she had started out with the knowledge that the time had come. The lessons were learned for both of them, and they had a right to let their hearts speak out to one another and to take their right relations before the world. Yet now that it had come she felt a sudden strange shyness, as if Dana were not the same, as if he had changed into a new man, one that she admired greatly and respected and loved beyond all the world; yet somehow she stood in a strange new awe before him. And so she spoke breathlessly, marking time for her heart to get steady and used to the thrill of his touch in this new way.
    “I’ve always wanted to know just why you decided to study for the ministry, why you were so sure even when you were a little boy and I first knew you that there was nothing else in life for you. Was it that your grandfather had been such a great preacher and that you had his name and felt you must keep a sort of tryst with the work he had commenced, or was it—something else?” She finished shyly with her eyes gravely down, her face almost