This was simply more than Pen could bear. She insisted to herself that it was simply gallantry on his part. Gallantry is part of the Maryland tradition. She laughed in a way that dried him up, and made him turn a dull red.
"Thanks for useful," she said.
The sullen, hurt glance he bent on her seemed to say: "You're charming but you're very prickly!"
That put the finish to their conservation. To the outward view they presented the spectacle of two normal young people slightly bored with each other and exchanging perfunctory remarks, but in reality each was suffering keenly. They couldn't make it go. Pendleton returned to the dining-room where they could hear him rattling the newspaper, and they were even ready to wish that he would come in and separate them in their unhappiness. Finally Counsell got the idea that Pen wished to be rid of him. After all he'd been hanging about the place all day. He rose to go.
Pen's heart said: "This is the end!" But her face only showed a polite and wistful blank. She said quietly:
"You'll be moving on to-morrow, I suppose."
"I suppose so," he said sullenly.
Pen greatly wished to say: "Well don't forget us," or something of the sort, light and friendly, but she could not get the words out.
And of course he took her silence to mean it was all one to her whether he went or stayed.
But he could not go like that. He hung indecisively at the door of the room. Finally he blurted out like a boy: