"I don't worry," said Cally, "now that I've got you to help me."
The man from the Dabney House spoke again:
"I was just thinking, out there at the telephone, that if there's no further business before the house, you might feel like beginning that long story you--you spoke of just now."
That took her by surprise. She seemed to be less and less at her ease. But now surely had come her moment to take her courage in her hands, and render him his due.
"I believe I ought to," said she, lightly--"a chapter or two, at least. For I don't think you'll ever work it out for yourself.... And I'm glad you're that way."
He made no reply, going on carefully with his arbor-day practice.
"When you said just now that this was wonderful," said Cally, beginning to lose the light touch already--"you meant that it was a wonderful happening, didn't you? Your idea seems to be that all this just happened."
But no, Mr. V.V. denied that vigorously, and stated his logical theory: that her father had chanced to postpone his intentions, merely through the well-known fact that men get accustomed to conditions that they constantly see; but that she, going there with fresh eyes....
"I might have gone there a hundred times, but I'd never have thought of it as having anything to do with me--don't you know it?--if it hadn't been for you."
He looked at her briefly; and she saw that his look was as bewildered as a battle-ground.