"I hope you will be very happy with Mr. Ridgway. Believe me, there is
nobody whose happiness I would so rejoice at as yours."
"Thank you," she smiled coolly, and her heart raced. "May I hope that your
good wishes still obtain even though I must seek my happiness apart from
Mr. Ridgway?"
He held her for an instant's grave, astonished questioning, before which
her eyes fell. Her thoughts side-tracked swiftly to long for and to dread
what was coming.
"Am I being told--you must pardon me if I have misunderstood your
meaning--that you are no longer engaged to Mr. Ridgway?"
She made obvious the absence of the solitaire she had worn.
Before the long scrutiny of his steady gaze: her eyes at last fell.
"If you don't mind, I'll postpone going just yet," he said quietly.
Her racing heart assured her fearfully, delightfully, that she did not mind
at all.
"I have no time and no compass to take my bearings. You will pardon me if
what I say seems presumptuous?"
Silence, which is not always golden, oppressed her. Why could she not make
light talk as she had been wont to do with Waring Ridgway?
"But if I ask too much, I shall not be hurt if you deny me," he continued.
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