“One can suffer a good deal in two or three days! How do you suppose I felt in that train, looking forward to meeting you—both!”
His eyes twinkled; the grave face broke into a smile.
“Exactly as you would have done, for months instead of days, if we had kept to the original agreement! No! beloved, I apologise, but don’t expect me to be abject. I’ve thought it out, not once, but a dozen times, and I can’t see that on the whole you’ve suffered more than you were bound to do in any case. And what have you been saved? Three months of uncertainty and waiting. And what have you gained? Three months of happiness to add to the score of life. It’s a big haul, my Katrine! It is worth a few pangs?”
“You twist things about; your arguments are specious; they are arguments without premises. Who said I was going to waive three months? I’m not at all sure that I shall. What would they say at home? They know I’m not the sort of girl to fall in love on a few days’ acquaintance.”
“Why bring Cranford into the question? Does it matter one button what they think? Besides, I don’t wish to be boastful, but as a matter of fact, you did!”
“I didn’t!” Katrine contradicted. “No! thank goodness, I am restored to my own confidence. I understand now that it was only because you were Jim, because I recognised yourself in spite of disguises that I did—fall! I was really absolutely loyal throughout, but other people won’t understand—Mrs Mannering, for instance! I told her there was ‘some one else.’”
“And I went one better, and told her who I was! We had a heart-to-heart talk that morning in Bombay before I left, and cleared up all misunderstandings. She’s a good sort. We owe her a lot. Perhaps some day we may be able to pay some of it back, to her boy.”
Katrine nodded dumbly. She was occupied in reviewing her journey up country in the light of the revelation, and seeing in it an explanation of her companion’s idiosyncrasies, her mysterious chuckles of laughter, her tenderness, alternated with raillery, her suppressed excitement at the moment of arrival. She had known all the time, even in Bombay, when the letter arrived! Katrine started, confronted by another mystery.
“The letter! The one at Bombay—”
“What about it?”