“I was just coming to see you, Yanna. May I walk home with you? Or has your father forbidden you to receive my visits?”
“That would be very unlike father, Harry. He leaves your visits to your own sense of honor; and to my loyalty to his wishes. I think he can trust both.”
“I have been so utterly wretched since I saw you last, my dear.”
“I have not been happy, Harry.”
“Yanna, I am going into a life full of excitement and temptation. Will you not straighten me for it by the promise I ask for?”
“Have you spoken to Mrs. Filmer again?”
“How could I? You know what a state of turmoil we have been in. But just as soon as we are settled in New York, I mean to have a good talk with mother about our marriage.”
“Then if she is willing for our engagement—our public engagement—you can come and tell father so; and you know how happy I shall be.”
“If our engagement should be made known in Woodsome, do you think it would reach New York?”
“Yes. Half a dozen of our Woodsome families are in New York some part of every winter. But that is not the question. What cannot be known in New York cannot be known in Woodsome. I should not like my Woodsome friends to believe we were engaged, if in New York they constantly met you behaving as if 102 we were not engaged. If you have any imagination, you can see what a painful position a half-engagement would put me in.”