Johnny instantly felt himself a brute. “No,” he said. “I know you don’t. I didn’t mean anything unkind. But I won’t go.”
“Do you really mean it?”
“Of course. I’m not going without you.” He might have said something more, but a little group of people came straggling past. And the girl, with her eyes on this group, said the first thing that came to her tongue.
“Where will you go then?”
“Oh anywhere. I don’t know. Walk about, perhaps.”
She looked shyly up in his face, and down again. “I might go for a walk,” she said.
Johnny’s heart gave a great beat. “Alone?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Perhaps.”
But she would be questioned into nothing definite. If she took a walk, she might go in such and such a direction, passing this or that place at seven o’clock, or half-past. That was all. And now she must hurry away, for she had already been too long.
What mattered the dance to Johnny now? A fig for the dance. Let them dance that liked, and let them dance the floor through if it pleased them. But how was it that Nora Sansom could take a walk to-morrow evening, yet could not come to the Institute? That was difficult to understand. Still, hang the dance!