Adhering strictly to the instructions, Croyden and Macloud left Annapolis on the next car, caught the boat at Baltimore, and arrived in Hampton in the evening, in time for dinner. They stopped a few minutes at Ashburton, to acquaint Captain Carrington with their return, and then went on to Clarendon.
Both men were nervous. Neither wanted the other to know and each endeavored to appear at ease.
Croyden gave in first. He threw his cigarette into his coffee cup, and pushed his chair back from the table.
“It’s no use, Colin!” he laughed. “You’re trying to appear nonchalant, and you’re doing it very well, too, but you can’t control your fingers and your eyes—and neither can I, I fancy, though I’ve tried hard enough, God knows! We are about all in! These four days of strain and uncertainty have taken it all out of us. If I had any doubt as to my affection for Elaine, it’s vanished, now.——I don’t say I’m fool enough to propose to her, 325 yet I’m scarcely responsible, at present. If I were to see her this minute, I’d likely do something rash.”
“You’re coming around to it, gradually,” said Macloud.
“Gradually! Hum! I don’t know about the ‘gradually.’ I want to pull myself together—to get a rein on myself—to—what are you smiling at; am I funny?”
“You are!” said Macloud. “I never saw a man fight so hard against his personal inclinations, and a rich wife. You don’t deserve her!—if I were Elaine, I’d turn you down hard, hard.”
“Thank God! you’re not Elaine!” Croyden retorted.
“And hence, with a woman’s unreasonableness and trust in the one she loves, she will likely accept you.”
“How do you know she loves me?”