"Going to the wharf, are you?" she said, with the first sign of human interest she had shown. "Oh, very well."
There was something noticeable in her tone, something which made Max suspicious and anxious on his friend's account. He came round the table with rapid steps, touched Dudley's shoulder, and said, in a low voice:
"I'll go with you!"
At the sound of his voice Carrie started violently, and looked up at Max, staring with eyes full of wonder and something very like delight. The rigidity with which she had held herself, the automatic manner, the hard, off-hand tone, all disappeared at once; and it was a new, a transformed Carrie, the fascinating, wayward, irresistible girl he had remembered, who gave him a smile and a nod, as she said, in a voice full of the old charm he remembered:
"You! Is it you?" Then, breathlessly, with a change to anxiety in her voice: "And are you going, too?"
"Yes. I'm going with my friend," said Max, as he came forward and held out a hand, into which she put hers very shyly; "from what I remember of my visit to your place, I think two visitors are better than one."
"I don't know whether granny will think so," said Carrie, still in the same altered voice.
She was shy, modest, charming. All her femininity had returned, and both the young men felt the influence of the change.
Dudley, who had instinctively stepped back to make way for his friend, was watching them both with surprise and uneasiness.
"We must risk Mrs. Higgs's displeasure," said Max, dryly, "unless, indeed, Dudley," and he turned to his friend, "you will give up this expedition altogether, as I strongly advise."