For a while, Jessie and Hoopdriver walked away from the hotel without saying a word.
Hoopdriver heard her breathing unevenly.
He glanced at her and saw that she was biting her lip. A tear was running down her cheek, and her face was flushed.
She kept looking straight ahead.
He had no idea what to say.
He shoved his hands into his pockets and deliberately looked away.
After a while, Jessie finally spoke.
At first they talked about the scenery, though neither of them seemed very interested.
Then they talked about how Hoopdriver could continue educating himself.
Jessie took down his address at Antrobus’s.
“I’ll send you some books,” she promised.
“Thank you,” he said.
But the conversation felt empty.
The excitement and determination of the past few days were gone.
Hoopdriver could feel it.
Jessie seemed lost in thoughts about everything that had happened.
That hurt him more than he wanted to admit.
It’s over, he thought.
It’s really over.
They walked down into a shallow valley and then climbed a gentle slope covered with trees.
Eventually they reached an open high point overlooking the countryside.
They stopped at almost the same moment.
Jessie looked at her watch, perhaps a little more deliberately than necessary.
Neither of them spoke.
Below them stretched a vast sea of forest.
Layer after layer of green hills disappeared into the distant blue haze.
Hoopdriver could think of only one thing.
This is the end.
At last Jessie broke the silence.
“So,” she said quietly, “I suppose this is goodbye.”
Hoopdriver said nothing for several seconds.
Then he gathered his courage.
“There is one thing I have to say.”
She turned toward him.
“What is it?”
“I don’t expect anything from you. I don’t want you to feel that you owe me anything. But…”
He stopped.
“No,” he said. “I won’t say it.”
Jessie looked surprised.
“It doesn’t matter,” he continued. “It would be foolish of me to say it now.”
He looked away.
“I wasn’t going to say anything. Goodbye.”
Jessie stared at him.
“No,” she said softly.
Then she seemed to remember something.
“Don’t forget what you promised me. You’re going to work.”
She smiled sadly.
“Remember, Chris, you’re my friend.”
Hoopdriver said nothing.
“You have a lot to learn,” she continued. “And, if you don’t mind me saying so, you’re not exactly a strong or confident man yet.”
He looked down.
“But think about this,” she said. “What could you become six years from now if you really work for it?”
He stared straight ahead.
Something changed in his expression.
He knew she understood what he could not bring himself to say.
“I’ll work,” he said.
They stood beside each other in silence for a moment.
Then Hoopdriver nodded toward the road.
“I won’t go back with them.”
Jessie looked at him.
“Do you mind going back alone?”
She thought about it for several seconds.
“No,” she said.
Then she held out her hand.
“Goodbye.”
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
Hoopdriver turned toward her.
His face had gone pale.
He took her hand awkwardly.
For a moment he simply held it.
Then, suddenly, he lifted it to his lips.
Jessie instinctively tried to pull her hand away.
But his grip tightened for just a moment.
His lips touched her hand.
Then he released her.
Without another word, he turned and walked quickly down the slope.
Jessie watched him go.
After a dozen steps, his foot caught in the edge of a rabbit hole.
He stumbled forward and nearly fell.
But he quickly regained his balance and kept walking.
He never turned around.
Not once.
Jessie stood there watching until he became smaller and smaller in the distance.
Tears filled her eyes.
At last she turned away.
She clasped her hands tightly behind her back and slowly walked toward Stoney Cross.
“I didn’t know,” she whispered.
“I didn’t understand.”
She stopped for a moment.
“Even now…”
She lowered her head.
“No. I still don’t understand.”