"You might have thought more of me and less of yourself.

You put your old canal first and me second." With which she swung about and marched off to the car, and it went away, rocking and lurching down the uneven trail.
Lee stood looking after it.

Her last words brought up the memory of the occasion when she had playfully uttered the like, one night in August, with the added inquiry, "What if you had to choose between us ?" Were things drifting to such an issue?
Would she at last force upon him that hard choice?
He flung up a hand in a gesture of despair.
Some metamorphosis had occurred in her; she was not the simple and loving Ruth to whom he had offered himself that day they picked berries in the canon.

Or was it that only now her real self was revealed?
Was it that she was capable of loving only selfishly?
Did she love him at all?
The questions bit like acid into his heart.

And a new one, that startled and dismayed his soul: Did he love her?
Yes--the Ruth she yet was.