“It is so boring sometimes,” Ethel remonstrated, and she answered:
“Not so boring as idleness in the long run, and having to make up your mind each day what you are going to do next. The girls who only enjoy themselves without work little know what they miss in never waking up in the morning to say, ‘Hurray! this is a holiday.’ No! give me my work and my play well balanced, and I’ll turn them into happiness.”
It was months before Alymer dared to speak to her of love. It had taken him long to win her to the old fooling again; and in a sudden gladness at some little remark or touch that seemed to show him he was truly forgiven for his own sake, he told her the story of his love, and his long waiting.
Hal was very taken aback, and a little unhappy, but when she had convinced him it was really quite hopeless, he forced himself back to the old comradeship, and took up his self-imposed burden of waiting once more.
Then followed a period of rapid successes, during which Hal told him seriously he must now make a choice among the bevy of beauty, wealth, and lineage at his disposal.
“You really ought, you know,” she said, “out of consideration for all the poor things left hoping against hope, and the numbers that are yearly added to them!”
“I have made my choice,” he answered; “it is not my fault about the vain hopes. It is the obstinacy of one woman, who is keeping the others in the unfortunate condition you describe.”
But she only smiled lightly, and put him off again, concluding with:
“I should be frightened out of my life at possessing anything so beauteous and attractive in the way of a husband.”
So Hermon worked on, and waited, believing in his star.