In time Joyselle would learn to evade these pitfalls, with which their future seemed to bristle, but as yet he was so unused to avoiding things in his path that it was almost a miracle that she had, as she put it with a half-whimsical, half-despairing smile, got him safely home without an outburst.
She was, had been from the first, fairly sure of herself, but she was wise enough to acknowledge that her strength depended largely on his. If he had broken down, she knew that the odds were largely against her being able, in her inevitable despair over his certain-to-follow good-bye, to continue to hide her own feelings. And after that, she believed, he would never see her again.
So it was with a strong feeling of relief that she said good-bye to him, half-way home, and went on alone.
As the hansom started again she turned and looked back. Joyselle stood, hat in hand, where she had left him, his face, now that he believed himself to be unseen by her, black with thought. Then, with the so familiar jerk of his head, he put on his hat, smiled, and marched off down the street.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
One afternoon, a few days later, Tommy Kingsmead burst into his sister's room where she was sitting writing.
"I say, Bick——"
"Hello, little boy, what's the matter?"
Tommy shrugged his shoulders in close imitation of Joyselle.