“You are so slow,” she said with a reckless little laugh; “I feel as if I could fly home.”
“Are you light-headed, Ruth?” asked her mother, but the girl had fallen behind them. She could not yet meet his eyes again.
“Come, Ruth, either stay with us or just ahead of us.” Mrs. Levice, awake, was an exemplary duenna.
“There is nothing abroad here but the stars,” she answered, flitting before them.
“And they are stanch, silent friends on such a night,” remarked Kemp, softly.
She kept before them till they reached the gate, and stood inside of it as they drew near.
“Then you will not be home till Monday,” he said, taking Mrs. Levice’s hand and raising his hat; “and I am off on the early morning train. Good-by.”
As she turned in at the gate, he held out his hand to Ruth. His fingers closed softly, tightly over hers; she heard him say almost inaudibly,—
“Till Monday.”
She raised her shy eyes for one brief second to his glowing ones; and he passed, a tall, dark figure, down the shadowy road.