“Enormously! Are you?”
“Right up to the perishing point!”
“Then why are you happy?”
“Because the dearest girl in the world loves me!”
They laughed their delight in this interchange, stopped to extricate from its difficulties a car which, unprovided with skid-chains, had landed in a ditch, and hurried on to make up for lost time. It was with a sense of disillusionment that Grace saw the city, as it seemed, coming out to meet her. Trenton was talking of his day’s appointments, of the men he expected to see. Grace’s thoughts flew ahead to the store, where she would meet Irene—meet her friend with a new self-consciousness—and of the deceptions and evasions that would be necessary to explain her night’s absence at home. But these thoughts were fleeting. She was happy in the confidence that the man beside her truly loved her and her love for him, which she had so often challenged and questioned even after she first encouraged him to think she cared, was no longer a matter for debate. She assured herself that there was nothing base in the relationship into which she had entered with him; that the attraction had been of the mind and spirit first of all. She swiftly reviewed all the points upon which her justification rested, and was satisfied that they stood the test of the morning sunlight and the clean wholesome air. She had no regrets; no misgivings. She had already convinced herself that their love was sufficient in itself. He turned from time to time to smile at her and took her hand that it might rest beneath his on the wheel.
“We haven’t settled yet when I’m to see you again. I want every minute you can give. Can’t we have dinner together tonight?”
“I wish we could, but I’ve got to go home for supper.”
“But I can see you afterwards,—please!”
“I could go to Miss Lawton’s where we met the first time. I think I can fix it with Minnie.”
“Then that’s settled! I understand perfectly that you have your family to consider and we’ve got to remember there are people in the world who haven’t much to do but pry into other people’s business. They’re a large and mischievous phalanx. For the present we’ve got to be careful.”