Darrow, before answering, waited long enough to get his words into the tersest shape—not without a sense, as he did so, of his likeness to the surgeon deliberately poising his lancet for a clean incision. “I’m not sure,” he replied, “of its being the best thing for either of you.”
She took the stroke steadily, but a faint red swept her face like the reflection of a blush. She continued to keep her lowered eyes on the screen.
“From whose point of view do you speak?”
“Naturally, that of the persons most concerned.”
“From Owen’s, then, of course? You don’t think me a good match for him?”
“From yours, first of all. I don’t think him a good match for you.”
He brought the answer out abruptly, his eyes on her face. It had grown extremely pale, but as the meaning of his words shaped itself in her mind he saw a curious inner light dawn through her set look. She lifted her lids just far enough for a veiled glance at him, and a smile slipped through them to her trembling lips. For a moment the change merely bewildered him; then it pulled him up with a sharp jerk of apprehension.
“I don’t think him a good match for you,” he stammered, groping for the lost thread of his words.
She threw a vague look about the chilly rain-dimmed room. “And you’ve brought me here to tell me why?”
The question roused him to the sense that their minutes were numbered, and that if he did not immediately get to his point there might be no other chance of making it.