“Good-bye,” said Grace faintly and watched him disappear in the crowd.
“I was going to ask him to come and dine with us,” said Miss Reynolds when the car was in motion, “but I changed my mind. And now I wish I could change it again!”
“I’m glad you didn’t,” Grace answered colorlessly. “It would have been a mistake.”
“Well, perhaps.” And Trenton was not referred to again.
But all the rest of the day Grace lived upon the memory of his look, his voice. He was still in a world she knew; any turn of the long road might bring him in sight again.
V
A week in Chicago followed a fortnight in New York and Grace had filled a large portfolio with notes and pamphlets bearing upon Miss Reynolds’s projected house for business girls. Her mother’s letters had kept her informed of family affairs and she was prepared to find Ethel gone and Roy’s wife established in the house. Ethel had refused to be married at home and the ceremony had been performed by Dr. Ridgely in his study, with only Mrs. Durland present to represent the family. Ethel and Haley had left at once for Cincinnati, where they were to make their home.
“I did the best I could about it, Grace,” Mrs. Durland kept repeating pathetically. “I hated to have her go that way, but she would do it. She said some pretty unkind things to your father after you left, and he didn’t go to see her married.”
For Sadie, the new member of the family, Grace formed an immediate liking. The girl was so anxious to be friendly and to do her share of the domestic labor and so appreciative of kindness that she brought a new element of cheer into the household. She was intelligent, and amusing, after a slangy fashion; even Stephen Durland laughed at her jokes.
Grace found that her position as secretary to Miss Reynolds was far from being a sinecure. She was present at all the conferences with the architect who had now been engaged, and when the announcement of the new club for business girls could no longer be deferred it fell to Grace’s lot to answer the letters that poured in upon Miss Reynolds. A bedroom was fitted up as an office and there Grace spent half of every day, keeping accounts, typing letters and answering the importunities of the telephone.