`` So tall and strong and handsome . I wish we had n't parted in anger . It was so foolish of us to quarrel . But it would have been all right if he had lived to come back . I know it would have been all right . I know he did n't carry any bitterness against me to his death . I thought once , Aunt Rachel , that I would go through life true to him , and then , over on the other side , I 'd meet him just as before , all his and his only . But it is n't to be . '' `` Thanks to your stepma 's wheedling and Mark Foster 's scheming , '' said I. `` No , Mark did n't scheme , '' she said patiently . `` Do n't be unjust to Mark , Aunt Rachel . He has been very good and kind . '' `` He 's as stupid as an owlet and as stubborn as Solomon 's mule , '' I said , for I WOULD say it . `` He 's just a common fellow , and yet he thinks he 's good enough for my beauty . '' `` Do n't talk about Mark , '' she pleaded again . `` I mean to be a good , faithful wife to him . But I 'm my own woman yet -- YET -- for just a few more sweet hours , and I want to give them to HIM . The last hours of my maidenhood -- they must belong to HIM . '' So she talked of him , me sitting there and holding her , with her lovely hair hanging down over my arm , and my heart aching so for her that it hurt bitter . She did n't feel as bad as I did , because she 'd made up her mind what to do and was resigned . She was going to marry Mark Foster , but her heart was in France , in that grave nobody knew of , where the Huns had buried Owen Blair -- if they had buried him at all .
And she went over all they had been to each other , since they were mites of babies , going to school together and meaning , even then , to be married when they grew up ; and the first words of love he 'd said XXXXX her , and what she 'd dreamed and hoped for .
about as at for if in of over through to