“Let me hope for your sake—that it won’t take as long for you to get other facts in life clear to you—as it did, this!”
“I called you up before—and they said you were ill. Of course I knew that just meant you wouldn’t see me. So I waited—and took a chance on coming unannounced.”
“I was—ill. I would have seen you—I waited for you, after I was better——”
“Joy! You were really ill? Why didn’t you send for me?”
“Why would I have had to? Others—came without being sent for.”
With a hissing intake of breath she drew away from him again, putting the table between them.
“Why, Joy, what’s the matter, dear? You’re acting as if I were a wild beast.”
She moved to the piano and sat on the bench before it. “No, Grant—I’m merely—protecting myself against myself. When I saw you so suddenly—after I thought I’d never see you again;—sit down there a minute—I’ve got to get all this straight.”
He obeyed with a frown. “I don’t understand.”
“Neither—did—I. But now I do! Now I do!” She threw back her head, and looked at him impersonally. “Grant, you’ve come back too late. I’ve learned to do without you.”