"Sent for you! A hundred times a day in thought." She laughed aloud, sparkling like the ice-cased boughs in the late afternoon sun. "A thousand thousand times in longing—every time my heart beat."
"Oh, it is so good to be with you!" He drew in a huge draught of the clean, cold, vital air. "Does the sun anywhere else shine on such happiness as this? But I've been mad with happiness ever since the word came."
"The word? What word?"
"Vaughan's letter. I knew you got him to write it."
Courtney stopped short. "I!" she exclaimed. "I don't know what you mean."
"I got a letter from him three days ago. He asked me to take another quarter interest in his work—said he needed the money, as he found he'd been using more of his own in it than he could afford with justice to his family——"
"Oh!" cried Courtney sharply.
"What is it?" asked Basil.
She was looking straight ahead. "Nothing—nothing. Go on." And she started to walk again.
"Your cry sounded like pain."