His voice compelled her to a swift resolution.
"I will do it."
He held out his hand with a sudden gesture, and she took it. His eyes and the clasp of his hand made her shudder and grow cold, with some swift, ominous foreknowledge of distant toil and sorrow and joy.
The lights were dimmed mysteriously, and Mason said:
"They are ready to begin again; we had better return."
He led her back to the box, and Mrs. Harvey flashed a significant look upon him, and said in a theatrical aside:
"Aha! at last."
Isabel said:
"Come and see us tomorrow at six—a 'pow-wow.'"
The music which came after could not hold Rose's attention. How could it, in the face of the tremendous changes which were in progress in her brain? What had she done? To an almost perfect stranger she had promised to burn all the work of her pen thus far.