Every evening he wrote thus to her , and the hour so spent glorified the entire day . The rest of the hours -- all the other hours of the commonplace day -- he was merely a poor schoolmaster with a long struggle before him , one who might not lift his eyes to gaze on a star . But at this hour he was her equal , meeting her soul to soul , telling out as a man might all his great love for her , and wearing the jewel of it on his brow . What wonder indeed that the precious hour which made him a king , crowned with a mighty and unselfish passion , was above all things sacred to him ? And doubly sacred when , as tonight , it followed upon an hour spent with her ? Its mingled delight and pain were almost more than he could bear . He went through the kitchen and the hall and up the narrow staircase with a glory in his eyes that thus were held from seeing his sordid surroundings . Link Houseman , sprawled out on the platform before the kitchen door , saw him pass with that rapt face , and chuckled . Link was ill enough to look at any time , with his sharp , freckled features and foxy eyes . When he chuckled his face was that of an unholy imp . But the schoolmaster took no heed of him . Neither did he heed the girl whom he met in the hall . Her handsome , sullen face flushed crimson under the sting of his utter disregard , and her black eyes followed him up the stairs with a look that was not good to see . `` Sis , '' whispered Link piercingly , `` come out here ! I 've got a joke to tell you , something about the master and his girl . You ai n't to let on to him you know , though . I found it out last night when he was off to the shore . That old key of Uncle Jim 's was just the thing . He 's a softy , and no mistake . '' * * * * * Upstairs in his little room , the schoolmaster was writing his letter .
The room was as bare and graceless as all the other rooms of the farmhouse where he had boarded during his term of teaching ; but it looked out XXXXX the sea , and was hung with such priceless tapestry of his iris dreams and visions that it was to him an apartment in a royal palace .
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