"But we must say good-by!" I plead.
He leaned forward then, as he made a motion to step back into the car. His eyes were passionate.
"What matters where good-by is said—if we can do nothing but say it?" he demanded. "It's your next move, Grace."
CHAPTER XIII
JILTED!
When a tempest in a teapot goes out at the spout it is always disappointing to spectators!
One naturally expects the vessel to burst—or the lid to fly off, at least—and when neither takes place one experiences a little collapsed feeling of disappointment.
The barest thought of the pain I was going to inflict upon Guilford Blake when I broke my lifelong engagement to him had been sending shivers up and down my backbone ever since four o'clock on the afternoon of Mrs. Hiram Walker's reception—then, when I turned away from Maitland Tait's motor-car the night I went to Loomis on urgent business, and came face to face with my betrothed standing in the shadow of the office door waiting for me—the unexpected happened!
Mr. Blake broke his engagement with me!
"Grace, you amaze me!" he said.
He said it so quietly, with so icy an air of disapproval that I looked up quickly to see what the trouble was. Then I observed that he had told the truth. I hadn't crushed, wounded, nor annihilated him. I had simply amazed him.