"I'm going to tell you two something," she began. "You are the very first to know, and I know you'll be glad. Before I left the house last October, Mr. Carter did me the--the great honour to ask me to--to marry him."
It gave her inward delight even to voice it; it made the miracle seem more real. Bottomley and Pilgrim exchanged stupefied glances in a dead silence.
"I met him at eleven o'clock to-day," Harriet finished, simply, "and we drove to Greenwich in Connecticut, and we were married at one o'clock."
Bottomley and Pilgrim glanced again at each other, glanced at Harriet, opened their mouths slowly.
Then Pilgrim dropped the hand she was familiarly caressing, and Bottomley rose slowly to his feet.
"Oh, no!" Harriet said, flushing in utter confusion and with a nervous laugh. "Oh, please! Please sit down, Bottomley, and please don't either of you think that it has made any difference. Although I am Mrs. Carter now, I'm still Miss Nina's companion!"
"To think of you bein' Mrs. Carter!" Pilgrim marvelled in a whisper.
"Oh, sh--sh--sh! You mustn't say it even!" Harriet caught both their hands. "No one must know. I only told you so that you would help me, so that you would understand! There will be no change, anywhere--"
Bottomley shook a dazed head; but Pilgrim looked at the other woman with kindly eyes, and presently said:
"Well, now, it's hard on you, so young and pretty and all, and goin' right on as if you wasn't married a bit!"