“Ah,” said Kit, “now I do see! You hadn’t heard the gravel train was going, and you thought in a few days Alison would be on board the steamer. Well if she had got frozen I’d have hated you.... However, since I’d have frozen by morning, you would not have had much grounds to be afraid of me. You plotted better than you thought!”
“I have got my punishment,” said Florence in a quiet voice. “Alison is my chum and perhaps suspense is as hard to bear as cold. Then she doesn’t suspect my shabby trick and I dare not tell her. For all that, my object was good.”
“Your nerve is pretty good,” Kit rejoined. “I’ll soon be all right and I’m not revengeful, but Alison ran an awkward risk, and that’s another thing. Besides, I can’t imagine why you were determined I shouldn’t meet her.”
For a few moments Florence was quiet and her face was red. Somehow Kit’s anger vanished. From the beginning she had doubted him, but when she claimed to be Alison’s chum she did not boast.
“Very well,” she said, “you are not the man for Alison. You belong to another lot, but you have some charm and she’s romantic. At all events you interested her and she thought about you. I don’t claim you consciously worked upon her, but it’s possible, and when she was called to England I was glad. The drawback was she was resolved to see you before she went. We are flesh and blood, and I thought when you knew she might not come back you might try to carry her away. Did you, Kit?”
Kit looked up. His mouth was tight and he knitted his brows.
“Yes,” he said. “We were freezing and I took Alison in my arms and kissed her. Well, I admit your not trusting me was justified. Alison knows I love her, but I ought to marry a girl in England.”
“You must take one of two lines: ask Alison to marry you, or tell her frankly why you cannot.”
“That is so. As soon as a train goes down the line I’ll start for Fairmead; there’s no use in my going to Harper’s now, because Alison mustn’t be bothered yet. I hope you don’t feel you ought to hate me?”
“One cannot hate you, Kit. I’m sorry for you—” Florence replied, and Austin opened the door.