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Only a month.
LITTLEFIELD.
And before that?
RHODA.
It's a long story. Besides, you wouldn't understand.
LITTLEFIELD.
You might let me try. What in the world have you been doing all this time?
RHODA.
I have been searching for something.
LITTLEFIELD.
What was it?
RHODA.
My own lost self. My own--lost soul.
LITTLEFIELD.
_Amused at her solemnity._
You're a queer bundle of goods. Always were. Head full of solemn notions about life, and at the same time, when it came to a lark,--Oh, I'm no grandmother, but when you got on your high horse--well!
_He waves his hands expressively._
RHODA.
_Bursts out._
The great town, the people, the noise, and the lights--after seventeen years of life on a dead prairie, where I'd hardly heard a laugh or seen a happy face!--All the same, the prairie had me still.
LITTLEFIELD.
You don't mean you went back to the farm?
RHODA.
I mean that the years I'd spent out there in that endless stretch of earth and sky--.
_She breaks off, with a weary gesture._
There's no use going into that. You wouldn't understand.
LITTLEFIELD.
No, I walk on simple shoe leather and eat mere victuals.--Just the same, it wasn't square of you to clear out that way--vanish into air without a word or a sign.
RHODA.
_Looking at him steadily._
You know very well why I went.
LITTLEFIELD.
_Returning her gaze, unabashed, chants with meaning and relish._
"Hey diddle, diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon."
_Rhoda takes up the basket and goes toward the outer door. He intercepts her._
RHODA.
Let me pa.s.s.
LITTLEFIELD.
You're not taking part in this camp-meeting enthusiasm, are you?
RHODA.
Yes.
_As he stares at her, his astonishment changes to amus.e.m.e.nt; he chuckles to himself, then bursts out laughing, as in humorous reminiscence._
LITTLEFIELD.
Bless my soul! And to think that only a couple of little years ago--Oh, _bless_ my soul!
_The stair door opens. Michaelis appears. His face in flushed, his hair disordered, and his whole person expresses a feverish and precarious exaltation._
MICHAELIS.
_Looks at Littlefield with vague query, then at Rhoda._
Excuse me, I am very thirsty. I came down for a gla.s.s of water.
_Rhoda goes to the kitchen door, where she turns. The doctor puts on a pair of nose-gla.s.ses and scans Michaelis with interest. He holds out his hand, which Michaelis takes._
LITTLEFIELD.
