“The suspense is awful, isn’t it?”
“Of course. But we must appear cheerful. We mustn’t betray ourselves.”
“Not for the world! I can never thank you enough. You’ll come with us all the way?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you again.”
She gave him her hand, which he pressed gently.
“Hullo!” said he. “We seem to have got up by the church somewhere. Where were we going to?”
“Why, to Rumpelmayer’s.”
“Oh, ah! Well, let’s go back to the hotel.”
Wonderings on the extraordinary coincidence, with an occasional reference to the tender tie of a common sorrow which bound them together, beguiled the journey back, and when they reached the hotel Dora was quite calm. Charlie seemed distinctly cheerful, and when his companion left him he sat down by Deane and remarked in a careless way, just as if he neither knew nor cared what the rest of them were going to do, “Well, I shall light out of here in a few days. I suppose you’re staying some time longer?”