“And it’s getting late. Your mother and father—”
She laughed.
“You needn’t worry about them! Let’s sit down and rest a few minutes, if you like.”
There was a great flat rock a little way up the bank from the roadway. Sitting there, they could catch a glimpse of an enormous orange-colored moon through the branches.
“It’s nice, isn’t it?” said Esther. “And doesn’t my ring look pretty in the moonlight?”
She held up a plump little hand for him to see.
“Are you engaged?” he asked, for even he knew that the question was expected of him.
“Yes—to the young man you saw last night in the drug store. It’s a secret, though; mommer and popper don’t know.”
“I hope you’ll be happy,” said Tommy, after a pause.
“I don’t see how I can be,” she answered plaintively. “I don’t really like him; but oh, dear, what else can I do? Why, I’ve only seen one real refined man in all my life. He was a traveling salesman. He wanted to marry me and go and live in New[Pg 34] York; but popper wouldn’t let me. He said I was too young.”