The Towers of Love Read Online Free Page A

had to be built again each morning—islands with harbours and marinas and lighthouses and channels between them where paper boats could be sailed back and forth. “It was up there a little way,” he said, and pointed. “Shall we see if we can find the place?”
    â€œOh, I don’t think I can make it, Hugh,” she said. “I’ve almost ruined this pair of heels already.”
    â€œYou should know better than to wear those for a walk in the woods.”
    â€œI know. That’s what happens when you become a dignified Chicago matron. You forget what walking in the woods is like.”
    â€œWhat else did we do here?” he said.
    â€œOh,” she said, “I don’t remember. But it seems as though we used to come here every day. We did—oh, everything.”
    â€œI built a bridge out of birch logs across these rocks,” he said.
    â€œYes. I remember the bridge. Did we ever go all the way down the brook?”
    â€œTo where it joins the river? Of course we did.”
    â€œ Did we? Are you sure? I remember seeing it—where it joins the river— from the river. But did we ever explore the brook all the way down to its mouth? I don’t think we ever did, and I wonder why we didn’t.”
    â€œI’m sure we did,” he said. “We must have. There were some big rocks you passed—remember? Like cliffs?”
    â€œNo, the cliffs are farther up,” she said. “See? My memory is better than yours.”
    â€œAre you sure?”
    â€œPositive. Remember—we used to think those cliffs were higher than the Grand Canyon? But they’d look small now, wouldn’t they?”
    â€œYes. We’ve seen the real Grand Canyon since,” he said.
    â€œOh, Hugh!” she said, and for a minute her voice sounded like a wail, as though she might be going to cry, and her eyes were so bright that he wondered if there were tears in them. “Remember it?” she said. “Remember how it was? Do you suppose any other children come here now?”
    â€œI don’t know. I guess not,” he said.
    She was looking at him intently and, though he was looking at the rushing water between the rocks, he could feel her eyes on him. “I keep thinking how very odd it is,” she said slowly, “that we should both have turned up here at the same time. Isn’t it the oddest thing? You had no idea I’d be here, did you?”
    â€œNone at all—till I heard about it last night.”
    â€œI wonder—could it have been a kind of thought transference, do you think?”
    He turned now and smiled at her, and she was smiling.
    â€œDo you think so, Hugh?” she repeated.
    He shook his head. “I’m afraid not, Edrita. Not on my part anyway. You see, I hadn’t planned to come at all until the day before yesterday, until Monday. I didn’t even want to come home, I—”
    â€œYou didn’t? But I thought you said—”
    â€œNo, no,” he said quickly. “I don’t mean that. I wanted to come, but—”
    â€œBut what?” she asked. And then, more quietly, she said, “I suppose you mean that it was really your mother who wanted you to come home.”
    â€œShe suggested it, yes. What’s wrong with that?”
    â€œYou’re trying to say that it isn’t any of my business why you came here,” she said. “And you’re right, of course. It isn’t.”
    â€œI didn’t mean that, Edrita,” he said. “I didn’t mean that at all, honestly.”
    â€œThen you’re not—you’re not sorry you found me here too?”
    â€œOf course I’m not.”
    â€œWell,” she said, “I’m sure your mother is.”
    â€œEdrita, can’t you ever forget all that old business?”
    â€œWhy should I? Why should I forget it? Anyway, it’s true, isn’t it—about how she