He flung out his hands.
“Lord knows!” He fidgeted. Suddenly he looked up at her with a boy’s grin. “I say—let’s chuck it, Laura?”
“Oh, well——” she said grudgingly. “Oh, well——” And then in most casual afterthought as she turned to her boxes (it was time to pack up: she could see Mrs. Cloud and Justin far away down the road) “And—Oliver? You won’t tell Justin, of course?”
At that word a great light broke upon Oliver, a light so dazzling that quite literally he stood and blinked, and still stood, staring at Laura’s unconscious back, while it lit up and flooded and overflowed every nook and corner of his memory.
So that was why!... So that, a dozen times and more, had been why!... He shook with sudden laughter as he kicked himself for a fool and laughed again. He felt a new man. Here was wine for his vanity, oil for his insulted heart. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate him.... It was simply that her eyes were otherwise occupied.... Oh, well then!... He hoped he was enough man of the world to understand the situation....
With gusto he adopted the rôle of kindly cynic.
Bless their hearts, he wouldn’t interfere.... But what a pair of innocents!... Did they think all the world as blind as they were themselves?... “Of course you won’t tell Justin?”... The dear girl!...
Oliver, you perceive, was his jaunty self again.
But (and, you know, I like Oliver) all he said to Laura and with the utmost gravity was——
“All right! I won’t if you won’t.”