“Yes, I should so like you to see him, and you must go to Mabillon. It is such a dear old place. I have grown to love it almost as if it were my own home.”
“Don’t you think we ought now to come to the business part of the interview?” said Ralph with a mirthful glance. “Do you think, darling, that you are really willing to become the wife of an actor who has still to fight his way up the ladder? Remember that as yet you are quite free, that there is no engagement even between us.”
“The engagement really began for me that Sunday at Southbourne,” said Evereld shyly.
“And for me, too,” said Ralph. “But think once more, darling, and try to realise what it will mean. Ours will have to be, at any rate for some time, a wandering life. For Macneillie has been so very good to me that I must stay with him and try to repay him a little for all his training. Even if a London engagement were to be offered me, and that is not likely, I should feel bound to stay with him as long as he cares to have me.”
“Oh, yes of course,” said Evereld. “Why, we owe everything to him! I wonder if he would like———” she broke off rather abruptly.
“What were you going to propose?” said Ralph trying to read her face. There was a wistful look in it now which he did not understand.
“Only I have felt so dreadfully sorry for him since the Fenchurch Case. Of course I heard people talking about it, and I can’t help fancying that he must still care for Miss Greville.”
“Yes,” said Ralph. “It is very rough on him.”
“I shouldn’t like to take you away from him, Ralph,” she continued, “specially just now, for I could see quite well at Southbourne that you are almost like a son to him; you don’t know what things he said about you when you were talking to Mrs. Hereford that morning. He would miss you dreadfully. Do you think we could still be in the same house with him when we are married? Or should I bother him?”
“I don’t think you would be likely to do that,” said Ralph smiling. “When I tell him about our marriage I will see how the land lies. I wonder, darling, whether you will be able to put up with all the discomforts of life in a travelling company?”