Black now did his best managing. He wasn’t specially good at it, it being rather a new part for him to play, where women were concerned. He was much more accustomed to maneuvering to escape a too persistent encouragement of his society than deliberately to planning to get somebody to himself. His idea just now was that if he could only take Jane away before the rest had started for the hotel, a few blocks down the street, he might secure the short walk with her alone. He had discovered that it was raining, one of those late March rains which melt the lingering snow from the streets, the air mild, the suggestion of coming spring hinting strongly in the very feel of the air. Cary was announcing that motors would soon be at hand to take everybody—he wanted them all to remain in costume, just for fun. Black must be quick now if he would secure the thing he found he wanted very much indeed.
“Miss Ray, don’t you want to walk instead of ride? I warn you that it’s raining, but wouldn’t the walk be good for you, after all this heat and strain?”
Jane turned to him. She had put on a long belted coat over her white uniform; she still wore her nurse’s veil-cap.
“Oh, yes!” she answered, quickly. “It’s just what I want most.”
“Then come—now, if you can. I’ll tell Tom to explain to your brother. He’ll forgive us—he’ll forgive anything to-night.”
They slipped away, and only Red’s quick eye saw them go. He said nothing to anybody—why should he? He knew Robert Black too well, by now, not to understand why he felt like getting away, and not to be entirely in sympathy with his wanting to go with Jane Ray. He felt like that himself—he didn’t want to go to anybody’s supper party. But he knew that Cary must be allowed to let down gradually to-night, and he knew that he was the one to stand by, as he meant to do. Black had done it far oftener than he.
Down in the street, with the first touch of the wet, mild air upon her hot cheek, Jane drew a long, refreshed breath.
“Oh, that’s so good,” she said.
“Isn’t it? Somehow I knew it was what you needed after that. Do you know what you did to us?”
“I don’t know what I did to anybody,” she said, “except myself.”