John nodded.
"Then I am so glad to have found you. Mrs. Randolph felt she was rather abrupt when you asked to see her and when she noticed you walking rapidly away she feared you were offended. I volunteered to find you." She was in the chair beside him.
"You are very kind and I am very happy," he managed to say. "I wasn't offended. I was embarrassed and frightened."
"By what?"
"By all this. The servant asked me if I was a tradesman—whatever that is—isn't that enough to frighten anyone?"
"I've read stories of reporters who never knew fear. And in plays the reporter always does the bravest things."
"In stories and in plays," he repeated. "This, too, is like a story or a play. Here I am rescued by a heroine who is—who is——"
"Who is what?"
"Beautiful." The word was no sooner spoken than he could have bitten off his tongue.