Bruce came slowly down from behind the railing of Judge Kellog’s desk and paused before Katherine. She was very white, her breath came with a tremulous irregularity, and she looked at him with wide, wondering, half-fearful eyes.
At first Bruce could not get out a word, such a choking was there in his throat, such a throbbing and whirling through all his being. He dizzily supported himself with a hand upon the back of a bench, and stood and gazed at her.
It was she that broke the silence.
“Mr. Hollingsworth did not tell me—you were here. I’d better go.” And she started for the door.
“No—no—don’t!” he said. He drew a step nearer her. “I’ve just read”—holding up the two papers—“what you have done.”
“Mr. Harper has—has exaggerated it very much,” she returned. Her voice seemed to come with as great a difficulty as his own.
“And I have read,” he continued, “how much I owe you.”
“It’s—it’s——” She did not finish in words, but a gesture disclaimed all credit.
“It has made me. And I want to thank you, and I do thank you. And I do thank you,” he repeated lamely.