He hastened to reply: “Nothing has happened. Your friends are all safe and well.”
“This is Miss Alice Darrell. Can you bow to her in the dark, and shake hands?” asked Victoriano.
“I think I can, but she might not see my bow,” said Mercedes, laughing, and extended her hand, saying: “I am glad to make your acquaintance, Miss Darrell.”
Clarence took her hand, as Alice had not seen it.
“See here, that hand was for me,” Alice said, laughing.
“Certainly,” said Clarence, putting Mercedes' hand in hers.
“Will you not shake hands with Clarence?” said Victoriano. “I declare, solemnly, girls are very ungrateful. Here Clarence has been so sorry, because you hurt your foot, and you have never thanked him for his kind sympathy.”
“Mr. Darrell has never expressed his kind sympathy to me, how was I to presume he felt it?”
“The presumption would have been mine had I expressed all I felt,” said he, taking off his glove, which action she rightly understood to mean that he wished to shake hands with her.
She extended her hand, and he clasped it in his. That ineffable thrill which he felt for the first time in his life when he lifted her in his arms was now felt again. It coursed through his veins with the warm blood that rushed to his heart.