Ethan released her instantly, while a wave of burning color swept across his face. He felt terribly small and ridiculous! He realized that he had taken it for granted that she had been experiencing emotions similar to his own, and instead of that she had been only bored and—and exasperated! He followed her laggingly up the slope, savagely calling himself names and meditating a retirement in such order as was still possible. She seated herself comfortably on the grass with her back against the smooth round trunk of a maple and patted down her skirts. Then she glanced up at him calmly.
“Do you realize,” she asked, “that you have made me late for church?”
He was grateful for that ready change of subject and piqued that she should be so little disconcerted. His own heart was still dancing.
“I am an humble instrument of Providence,” he answered as lightly as he could, dropping to the ground at a respectful distance from the tips of her small shoes.
“That sounds a little sacrilegious,” she said. “Besides—humble?”
“Humble, yes,” he answered. “I can’t think of a better word, unless it is ‘abashed.’”
“But why do you call yourself an instrument of Providence? Because you live there?”
“‘That sounds a little sacrilegious,’” he quoted. “I meant that if you had gone to church you would have made yourself very warm and possibly returned with a headache. I have saved you from that.”
“Thank you! But of course if it hadn’t been for the introduction I couldn’t have stayed!”