"It is good to see you home again, Jack."
It was Eloise who spoke. Her eyes told me that she had been waiting, and a brave lingering smile went with her words. There were little tired, hard lines around her sweet mouth. She looked tired but game, as when, in a long day's hunt after quail and the route home was long, and our luck nil, it needed a good heart to smile.
She stood with Goff in the reception room, as though she were Countess of Carfax already. The hand I held trembled for the first time in mine.
"Glad to see you back, Jack," said Goff, his face aglow with the pride he felt.
"Where have you been, Jack? I thought you were never coming to see me again?" Eloise asked.
She gradually moved away with me from the crowd in the center of the room until we stood apart in the large bay window.
"Come," I said teasingly, "you have got away from your lord; he will miss you."
It was not fun to her. Her face flushed, then paled. "Jack, you must dance with me once to-night—our last dance. I have something to tell you then."
"I don't think you ought to punish me any more than you have already, Eloise," I said frankly.
"Maybe I am punishing myself more," she said softly.