“It’s all right, dear,” he went on reassuringly. “She said she knew we’d been drifting further apart for a long time and that she wasn’t surprised by my letter. She hadn’t acknowledged it because she was waiting for a chance to see me to talk it out. She seemed rather amused. She has a way of being amused at things. And now—don’t jump!” he caught her hand and clasped it tight. “She was always a woman of surprises—she said she wanted to see the girl I had mentioned—but not in a disagreeable way at all. If you knew her you’d understand.”
“That’s it—I do understand,” Grace replied slowly. “I was at the dinner Miss Reynolds gave for her last night. I ought to have asked you if it was all right to go—but I was afraid you’d say no—and—and I had to see her.” Her voice broke in a sob, but lifting her head she hurried on. “I was jealous—terribly jealous—and something tells me that—that—we are—near the end.”
“Please, dear; don’t give way to foolish fears!” he implored. “I’m glad you went to the dinner; that was all right and I want to hear all about it later. Having seen Mrs. Trenton you ought to know that her request is quite characteristic. Don’t you see that she’s curious about you, just as you were about her! I really think she means to be kind to me. It’s unusual of course, but—Mrs. Trenton is a very unusual woman!”
Grace looked at him in a kind of dumb wonder.
“You—you told her my name—” she faltered.
“No; certainly not! You weren’t mentioned. I think she assumed that the girl I wrote her about lived in St. Louis. She was rather taken aback when I said she lived here.”
“And you told her you’d produce me—exhibit me for her criticism? Ward, what can you be thinking of; what can you think of me to ask such a thing? I suppose you told her everything?”
“Why Grace, this isn’t like you! You’re taking it all too seriously. Mrs. Trenton has no cause to think anything except that I’ve met you and fallen in love with you. You must be reasonable, dear,” he went on patiently. “She knows nothing and has no right to assume—what we’d rather she didn’t. It’s just a whim of hers. If I thought she wouldn’t treat you as one lady should treat another I wouldn’t ask you to go. It will be the most formal call—no chance for anything unpleasant, even if she wanted to be disagreeable.”
“She could be very disagreeable. I didn’t like her; I didn’t like her at all! It seems to me sheer folly to put myself in her way unnecessarily.”
“I tell you it will be all right!” he protested. “She will be surprised, of course, to find that she has already met you. You know I wouldn’t cause you the slightest embarrassment or pain for the world.”