"Not for five months yet. Oh, my dear friend! It seems such an age now, before I can throw off those cursed bonds; and I had grown so indifferent to them! My life was blasted, and as long as I loved no other woman, it was all one to me. But now—"
He broke off with so deep a sigh that Mrs. Courtly was startled. All the way home he talked of this English girl, and of nothing else. His friend recognized no longer the man who for years had found so little in life to prize, to admire, or to love.
On their return home they found Saul Barham. Mrs. Courtly had said nothing of his coming for the night; she had kept it as a little surprise for Grace, who would be pleased, she knew, to see him. And she was right. Miss Ballinger greeted the young professor with a warmth which made Quintin Ferrars jealous. He had never liked Barham. More than once on board the Teutonic their opinions, or something that lay deeper than opinions, had clashed. Ferrars, so trenchant in his judgments, found a man, fifteen years his junior, who treated him more than cavalierly; for hesitation and diffidence were not among Saul's weaknesses. The young Harvard professor felt a certain contempt for this idle, wandering fellow-countryman of his, with his superior nil admirari tone about their common land; and he showed it. The greeting between the two, therefore, was cold, almost to freezing-point, on this occasion; and Ferrars was sore at heart when he saw Grace's fair face beaming with smiles.
"How is your mother, to begin with?" she asked; and when reassured on that point, "Have you felt strong, yourself, since you returned to work? You look a little pale—not quite as well as you did after our six days' voyage."
"Of course not," he replied, smiling. "The Creation took six days. I was re-created during that voyage. I was another man. For the last two months I have been a worm again, grubbing in the earth, but, barring a real little cough, I am pretty well."
She thought him looking thin and worn, but said no more on the subject. She told him she meant to write to Mrs. Barham, and propose herself for an afternoon visit, as soon as she and her brother arrived in Boston.
"She will love to receive you, Miss Ballinger. She so often speaks of you to me. She would not venture to ask you to stay, but if any circumstance should render it possible for you to pass a few days under our roof it would be a real joy to—us all."
"It would be nice if I could manage it. Perhaps, if my brother goes to meet my aunt in New York, I may be able, for a couple of days—but I am afraid you won't be at home?"
"I can run down in the evenings to dine and sleep, and back to my work in Cambridge in the morning. I very often do it. It is no distance by rail. And I generally pass my Sunday at home. You will let me take you over Harvard College, I hope?"
"Certainly. I am looking forward to seeing Cambridge, which is associated in my mind with so many eminent men. You like your life there? You are happy?"