CHAPTER VIII
ADDED PEARLS
The days which followed were golden days to Jane. There was nothing to spoil the enjoyment of a very new and strangely sweet experience.
Garth's manner the next morning held none of the excitement or outward demonstration which had perplexed and troubled her the evening before. He was very quiet, and seemed to Jane older than she had ever known him. He had very few lapses into his seven-year-old mood, even with the duchess; and when someone chaffingly asked him whether he was practising the correct deportment of a soon-to-be-married man,
"Yes," said Garth quietly, "I am."
"Will she be at Shenstone?" inquired Ronald; for several of the duchess's party were due at Lady Ingleby's for the following week-end.
"Yes," said Garth, "she will."
"Oh, lor'!" cried Billy, dramatically. "Prithee, Benedict, are we to take this seriously?"
But Jane who, wrapped in the morning paper, sat near where Garth was standing, came out from behind it to look up at him and say, so that only he heard it "Oh, Dal, I am so glad! Did you make up your mind last night?"