The most magnificent figure of a man she had ever seen often reared
itself in her thought-pictures with its six feet six of straight limbed
strength, its eagle-like keenness of eye, and its self-confident
bearing.
"Ef I could really be a man," she told herself, "I'd love ter be a man
like ther Halloway feller--ef only he wasn't so plum dirty and raggedy."
One day on her way back from the fields she saw a tall figure loafing
near the front door of her house and, at that distance, she thought
that it was Halloway. It stood so tall and straight that it must be,
but that was because the setting sun was in her eyes and the man showed
only in silhouette. So seen Jerry O'Keefe--for it proved to be
Jerry--suffered little by comparison with any man she knew--except
Halloway.
But Alexander did not greet him with any great warmth. She was angry
with herself because her heart had started suddenly to pounding at the
instant when she had imagined this man to be the other. She was angry,
too, with Jerry for disappointing her.
So she nodded coolly and demanded, "What's yore business hyarabout?"
In Jerry the rising joyousness of rebirth was full confessed.
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