With an exclamation of surprise and joy he opened the door, climbed in and seated himself beside her.
"Oh, this is too good!"
In the darkness he groped about and they managed to shake hands.
"Why, Ruth, this is hard to believe!"
It was, indeed! Many questions were asked, and answered. And they talked of earlier days at Longfields, of Longfields people, of what sort of men and women their playmates had become. More than all else, they talked of their old friendship and their various adventures together. And both laughed in recalling how Ruth in that distant period was mother, sister, aunt, governess and best girl to Cyrus. This revival of the old intimacy had reached a stage where the enshrouding darkness was almost forgotten.
"But tell me, Drowsy," she demanded, "how came you here and why did you ask all those crazy questions? I should be sorry to think you had been dining too well."
"Dining too well! No, my wabbly course just now was owing, partly, to not having dined at all:—and with neither lunch nor breakfast either."
"You poor thing! Then why pretend you didn't know you were in England?"
"There was no pretending. I really didn't know until you told me."