"No. I said I'd be best man—or something of the sort."
Elaine felt something leaden go down to the point of her heart.
"You wanted him to know that you had no idea—— You wanted Gerald to understand——" She could not finish her sentence. Her face was hotly flaming, but at least she could turn it away.
Grenville's voice was hard and strange.
"It was barely his right to know that we were coming. I could do no less, as you'll certainly agree."
His speeches were constrained, unnatural, as Elaine had instantly felt. Her own were scarcely less embarrassed—after all these months when their entire world had comprised themselves alone. It seemed a monstrous error that anything but free, unfettered companionship and candor should exist between them now.
"I know," she said. "Of course." She added, after a moment, "It seems so peculiar, that's all—to—resume as we were before."
He was looking at his fist, for no good reason in the world.
"It is what you have hoped for every day."
"To get away from the Dyaks—why, of course."