The decisive moment in their struggle was at hand. Kate felt that everything depended on her holding fast to the line she had resolved to follow, and her voice sounded thin and small in the effort to steady it.
“Is Major Fenno in New York?”
“No. He went back to Baltimore on Saturday.” Anne wavered. “He’s waiting to hear from me ... before he comes.”
A hope leapt up in the mother’s breast, then sank its ineffectual wings. She glanced back slowly at the newspaper.
“This announcement was made with your permission?”
The unwonted colour still burned in the girl’s cheek. She made a motion of assent, and added, after another pause: “Uncle Hendrik and Aunt Enid thought it only fair.”
“Fair to Major Fenno?”
“Yes.”
The silence prolonged itself. At length the mother brought out: “But if you’ve announced your engagement he has a right to be with you.”
Anne looked at her almost timidly. “I wanted first ... we both wanted ... to feel that when he came you would ... would be ready to receive him.”