If Dorothy had studied his eyes during the last remark she might easily have read the reason for his desire to return.
"And now I must make up for lost time. I have had no pleasure ride since I left and I must have one this afternoon. Don't deny a dilapidated traveler the pleasure, but be ready at two-thirty for a ride, and after that for a tennis game." Before she could give her answer he decided it for her and told her that he would be on hand at the time mentioned.
For two hours that afternoon they sped along the country road in happy converse. In fact, their ride was lengthened into nearly three hours. That evening found him again at her side. The clock struck eleven. He had started to leave a half hour before the time, and still he lingered. Suddenly he turned his eyes upon her and said:
"Dorothy, do you know why I dashed through my Louisville trip at such break-neck speed this week?"
"Why, you had to get back to your business, did you not?"
"Dorothy, it was you that pulled me back, and I tell you there can be no real life for me without you, and I must have you mine forever. From the first moment of our meeting I have been yours. God intended us for each other."
"You speak very confidently," she said with a smile, but with her heart filled with a strange new happiness.
"Speak, Dorothy, do we not belong to each other?"
"I do not deny it."
Never had the town witnessed a more beautiful marriage than that of Dorothy Page and Gilbert Sterling. That was the verdict of the people when the blissful pair smiled their adieus at the depot and moved off on their wedding tour.