“That was a white moonlight night. So is this. Come and take a walk.” Hal stretched out a hand to Marjorie.
“Just a little way.” She followed him down the steps, but laughingly refused his hand. “I know this place better than you. I don’t need a guide,” she said. “We mustn’t go far from the veranda. I am hungry. We are soon going to have a midnight supper, especially for you.”
“I’m grateful for hospitality. What a corking old piece of magnificence the Arms is! I wish I had time to see it thoroughly. I’d invade your study and bother you. I give you fair warning.”
“Why can’t you stay at the Arms for a few days, Hal? Jerry will be so disappointed. You can’t know as I know how much she loves you.”
“I know.” Hal nodded. “Jerry will be home before long. But you won’t be home for—” He paused. “Are you coming home in June?”
“I don’t know.” The answer came doubtfully. “The biography won’t be finished until some time next winter. I must come back to Hamilton next fall to see to our dormitory interest. There are other things, too. Captain and General wish me at home, and Miss Susanna wishes me here, and—
“I want you myself, Marjorie.” Hal’s quick utterance had the virile quality now which had thrilled her when he sang. “Why do I tell you this again when I’ve sworn to myself I’d never trouble you? I don’t know. I only know that you seem to me tonight to be—kinder.”
“Hal, I—” They were crossing the lawn now strolling aimlessly along under the moon’s pale rays. They came to an immense flowering almond bush. It lifted burgeoning pink clusters, a mass of rioting bloom under the white light.
“Hal, I always mean to be kind to you.” Marjorie did better this time. “I wish you wouldn’t feel that you have troubled me. I have read Brooke Hamilton’s love story. I understand more of love than I used. I know that true love is—it is—”
“What do you know of love?” Hal’s hands suddenly dropped lightly upon her shoulders. The two had stopped before the great pink bush, facing each other, their young features set with the terrific earnestness of youth. “Have you grown up? Do you love me?”