“Never is a long day. You have said so. You are going away. Try to forget me and to love her, and when you return again two years hence to America——”
“When I return she will be married; she will, at least, have outgrown this silly dream.”
Adelaide shook her head. “Promise me that you will do as I ask; that you will go and ask her when you come again.”
“And if she refuses me, as she certainly will, may I come to you for the reward of my obedience?”
Again the tell-tale light flashed in Adelaide’s eyes, but she only said: “She will not refuse you.” And in the hall Milly’s voice was heard in a high key, with the best of intentions, announcing the return of the guests from the dining-room, as she replied to some banter of Stacey’s:
“Indeed, Stacey Fitz Simmons, I never change my mind—never.”
“Good-by,” said Adelaide.
Professor Waite raised the portière for her to pass. “You are very cruel,” he murmured.
“You will thank me for this some day,” she said, and the curtain of an impenetrable fate fell between them.
Milly seized my arm a few moments later. “I don’t understand it at all,” she said, “but Adelaide has certainly refused Professor Waite. I met him just now in the hall, and he glared at me like a maniac. I was positively afraid of him. I ran in to speak to Adelaide, but others had entered before me, and she only took my hand and squeezed it tight, while she talked with the Bishop. And Tib, she was as white as a sheet.”