Only a month.

LITTLEFIELD.

And before that?

RHODA.

It's a long story. Besides, you wouldn't understand.

LITTLEFIELD.

You might let me try. What in the world have you been doing all this time?

RHODA.

I have been searching for something.

LITTLEFIELD.

What was it?

RHODA.

My own lost self. My own--lost soul.

LITTLEFIELD.

_Amused at her solemnity._

You're a queer bundle of goods. Always were. Head full of solemn notions about life, and at the same time, when it came to a lark,--Oh, I'm no grandmother, but when you got on your high horse--well!

_He waves his hands expressively._

RHODA.

_Bursts out._

The great town, the people, the noise, and the lights--after seventeen years of life on a dead prairie, where I'd hardly heard a laugh or seen a happy face!--All the same, the prairie had me still.

LITTLEFIELD.

You don't mean you went back to the farm?

RHODA.

I mean that the years I'd spent out there in that endless stretch of earth and sky--.

_She breaks off, with a weary gesture._

There's no use going into that. You wouldn't understand.

LITTLEFIELD.

No, I walk on simple shoe leather and eat mere victuals.--Just the same, it wasn't square of you to clear out that way--vanish into air without a word or a sign.

RHODA.

_Looking at him steadily._

You know very well why I went.

LITTLEFIELD.

_Returning her gaze, unabashed, chants with meaning and relish._

"Hey diddle, diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon."

_Rhoda takes up the basket and goes toward the outer door. He intercepts her._

RHODA.

Let me pa.s.s.

LITTLEFIELD.

You're not taking part in this camp-meeting enthusiasm, are you?

RHODA.

Yes.

_As he stares at her, his astonishment changes to amus.e.m.e.nt; he chuckles to himself, then bursts out laughing, as in humorous reminiscence._

LITTLEFIELD.

Bless my soul! And to think that only a couple of little years ago--Oh, _bless_ my soul!

_The stair door opens. Michaelis appears. His face in flushed, his hair disordered, and his whole person expresses a feverish and precarious exaltation._

MICHAELIS.

_Looks at Littlefield with vague query, then at Rhoda._

Excuse me, I am very thirsty. I came down for a gla.s.s of water.

_Rhoda goes to the kitchen door, where she turns. The doctor puts on a pair of nose-gla.s.ses and scans Michaelis with interest. He holds out his hand, which Michaelis takes._

LITTLEFIELD.