IX
She looked forward eagerly to the promised talk with Irene and after supper she hurried down town and was shot upward in the tall office building. She found Irene and John sitting opposite each other at a large flat top desk. Irene was helping John to compare descriptions of property but she would be free in a moment. He showed Grace into the big library and laughingly gave her a law magazine to read, saying it was the lightest literature the place afforded.
The dingy volumes on the shelves impressed her with a sense of the continuity of law through all the ages. She glanced idly at the titles, Torts, Contracts, Wills, Injunctions,—there must, in this world, be order, rule and law! Life, nobly considered, was impossible without law. It was the height of folly that she had ever fancied herself a rebel, confident of her right to do as she pleased. She had made her mistakes; henceforth she meant to walk circumspectly in the eyes of all men. She envied Irene her happiness with John; as for herself, love had brought her nothing but sorrow and heartache.
Her speculations were interrupted by the rustle of papers in the adjoining room. The door was half ajar and glancing in she saw a man seated at a desk, busily scanning formidable looking documents and affixing his signature.
Absorbed in his work he was evidently unaware that he was observed. Her heart beat wildly as she watched him. She stifled a desire to call to him; checked an impulse to run to him. Irene had played a trick upon her in thus bringing her so near to Trenton! She wondered whether he had seen her and was purposely ignoring her. Or, he might think she had suggested this to Irene. Her face burned; she would escape somehow. As she watched him he lifted his head with a sigh, threw himself back wearily in his chair and stared at the wall. No; she would not speak to him; never again would she speak to him. Panic-stricken she turned and began cautiously tiptoeing toward the hall door with no thought but to leave the place at once.
But, the door gained, her heart beat suffocatingly; she could not go; she did love him, and to run away—
She stole into the room without disturbing his reverie, and laid her hand lightly on his shoulder.
“I couldn’t go—I couldn’t leave you—”
Then she was on her knees beside him, looking up into his startled eyes.
He raised her to her feet, tenderly, reverently, gazing eagerly into her face.
“How did you know?” he cried, his eyes alight.
“I didn’t know; it just happened. I—I saw you—and I just couldn’t run away!”
“Oh, say that again! I’ve missed you so! You can’t know how I’ve missed and needed you!”
“Do you—do you love me,” she asked softly, “as you used to think you did?”
“Oh, more—more than all the world!”
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or alternate spelling has been retained from the original.