"Welcome!" she said, smiling.
"Aren't you surprised?"
"I'm pleased. Why should I be surprised?"
"It is so unheard of, for me to be running out of town on unexpected visits to a lady, that it seems as if everybody must be as surprised as I am."
"The lady was thinking of you when your name was announced, which may account for her nonsurprise."
"Really?" he said so warmly that she blushed a bit.
"Yes, I finished the book to-day. I was thinking it all over—this last year. My new sense of getting somewhere, and of you—the big part you play in it all. Have I ever told you how utterly grateful I am?"
He looked down at her, sunk among the cushions of the big couch, before replying.
"I think you need not say it," he replied. "I have been so richly rewarded in knowing you."
"Thanks, friend."