Then he turned, and it was true, all of it—that look she had remembered, that glamour, that enchantment.

“Oh, Pem!” he said. “Didn’t you know I’d come?[Pg 145]

For a minute she was utterly content in his arms, as if her restless and disconsolate spirit had at last found peace; but not for long. She moved away, still holding his hand, and looking at him with a misty smile.

“You’re so beautiful!” he said. “Sometimes I thought you couldn’t be as lovely as I remembered, but you’re a hundred times—”

The clock on the mantelpiece struck three.

“Let’s go out!” she said hastily.

He was a little taken aback.

“Can’t we stay here, Pem? I want a chance to talk to you.”

“Not here. We can talk somewhere else. I know a nice little tea room where we can dance.”

“I don’t want to dance,” said he; “and—look here, Pem! I’m a bit hard up, this trip.”