“Bonard and I shall take supper with her one evening and make her laugh with funny stories. And I shall ask her to do the shopping for you, which will please and occupy her.”

“I wish you were staying with her.”

“It’s easier to go about our business from the hotel.”

“I suppose it is. I know you have said so. You think to be no more than a week or ten days?”

“About that,” he said cautiously. “If it must be more than that, more than a day or two longer than that, I shall send word. But no, I expect to be back at Beulah Land in a week or so.”

“I wish I were going.”

He made no reply but turned his back and took a waistcoat close to an oil lamp to examine the front of it.

She allowed herself a private smile before saying in a lighter tone, “Do you think they will really build the railroad all the way from Savannah to Macon?”

“They say so, and I hear they are ready to begin, if indeed they have not already commenced.”

“What a difference it will make to us all!” she said cheerfully. “In a few years we may take a simple stage—even a carriage—to Dublin, and there take the train to Savannah!”

“It will be something for the cotton and timber too, you know,” he observed teasingly. “It isn’t actually being laid out only for you to visit Broughton Street, or for Aunt Pea to come to Beulah Land.”

“You will press her to come this spring for a long visit? Urge her to return with you.”

“I shall, my love.” He took her by the shoulders and kissed her gently on the forehead. They looked at each other with true affection. “Now let us go downstairs and have a glass of wine before the fire with Mama. I’m sure she too will want to repeat all of her commissions.” She laughed and took his arm, and they left the final packing for later, when they would need some occupation to keep them together and apart before bedtime.

3

Although she kept herself busy, she missed Leon. There are different ways of being husband and wife, and while the way of Leon and Sarah fell short of complete fulfillment for each, it was seldom marred by disagreements, never by real strife, and their weddedness had grown more solidly important to both over the years, as their trust in each other grew, strengthened by deeper and deeper affection. The awkward moments would be between them as long as they lived, but even those were not without tender feelings. And there was so very much they could share. Sarah loved Leon’s lightheartedness, his readiness to laugh, to see the fun of a thing; she loved his lively intelligence and his handsome appearance.