Fate would be sure to be kind to lovers like us!
We got back to Claridge’s about six, and Robert would not let me go up to my sitting-room, until he had found out if Christopher had gone.
Yes, he had come at four, we discovered, and had waited twenty minutes, and then left, saying he would come again at half-past six.
“Then you will write him a note, and give it to the porter for him, saying you are engaged to me, and can’t see him,” Robert said.
“No, I can’t do that—I am not engaged to you, and cannot be until your family consent, and are nice to me,” I said.
“Darling,” he faltered, and his voice trembled with emotion, “darling, love is between you and me, it is our lives—however that can go, the ways of my family, nothing shall ever separate you from me, or me from you, I swear it. Write to Christopher.”
I sat down at a table in the hall and wrote,
“Dear Mr. Carruthers,—I am sorry I was out,” then I bit the end of my pen. “Don’t come and see me this evening. I will tell you why in a day or two.
“Yours sincerely,