"
And he told his poolroom friend a tale of India and of two plain white
stones that lay somewhere within the heart of it.
CHAPTER XIV
THE CHARM
It was a wonderful charm--that picture of a little boy and his pet hen.
Nanny carried it about during the day and felt almost safe and easier
of heart. She wondered what had become of all her old happiness, the
carefree joy that had been hers before she met the boy who came from
India and who did not understand women.
Ever since that day on the hill top Nanny's life had been troubled.
She was haunted with strange, vague fears. She woke up one morning
with the knowledge that she had dreamed the night long of the boy from
India. That afternoon she found herself unable to think of anything
but him.
A panic seized her. She began to be afraid of herself. She caught
herself looking out of the windows and down the dusty summer roads, at
first unconsciously and then with a curious expectancy that grew to a
longing so real that she could not help but understand.
It came to Nanny with a terrible shock--the knowledge that at last she
loved a man. She remembered then the eyes of the men who had loved her
and whom she had so carelessly sent away. She understood then the hurt
they had carried away with them and hoped penitently that each had
found the comfort and love he had craved.
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