But, toward the last, he approached Geraldine again, murmuring, pleadingly:
"I should like to call on you this evening, if you will permit me."
She blushed, and stammered:
"Please excuse me, as I have another engagement."
He saw her timid glance turn toward Hawthorne, and readily guessed that she had made an engagement with him.
Stifling an execration between closely drawn lips, he muttered:
"To-morrow evening, then?"
"Oh, yes, certainly," she answered, but with an air of restraint that made him furious.
"She would like to refuse if she dared, the little flirt," he thought, and when Geraldine and Hawthorne left the boat together, he looked after them pale with rage.