He had been so much in her thoughts, and she had considered him from so many angles that at first she was shy in his presence. But by the time they were seated in the dining room her diffidence was passing. He appeared younger than at The Shack, but rather more distinguished; it might have been the effect of his dinner coat; and she noticed that he was the only man in the room who had dressed for dinner.
“You’ve been busy of course and I’ve been up to my eyes in work,” he said; “so we’ll dismiss business. Shall we talk of the weather or see what we can do to save the world from destruction!”
“Oh, I’ve had a lot of ideas about things since I saw you,” she said. “Half of them were right and half wrong.”
“Oh,” he exclaimed, “our old friend conscience!”
“Yes,” she replied, meeting his gaze squarely. “I’ve been trying to decide a thousand questions, but I’ve got nowhere!”
“Terrible! But I’m glad to find that you’re so human; most of us are like that. Honest, now, you weren’t at all sure you wanted to see me tonight!”
“No,” she assented under his smiling gaze; “I didn’t send the answer to your note till nearly noon!”
“So I noticed from the hotel stamp on the envelope! But I’d have been very much disappointed if you’d refused.”
His tone was too serious for comfort. She felt that she must have a care lest he discover the attraction he had for her.
“Oh, you’d have got over it! You know you would. You needn’t have dined alone—Tommy’s out of town, but there’s Irene!”