Presently he said: "There's something I want very much to ask you, but I don't know whether I have any right to."
"If there's anything I can answer, I will," said Eve.
"Then I'll ask it, and you can do as you please about answering. It's just this. Is there anyone who has—a prior claim? I mean is there any one you must consider in this, Miss Walton. Please don't say a word unless you want to."
Eve made no reply for a moment. Then, "I think I'm glad you did ask that, Mr. Herrick," she said, "for it gives me a chance to explain why I haven't answered you this morning, instead of putting it off. I am not bound in any way by any promise of mine, and yet—there is some one who—I hardly know how to put it, Mr. Herrick."
"Don't try if it is too hard. I think I understand."
"I don't believe you do, though. I'm not quite sure—it's only this; that I want to feel quite free before—I answer you. I may have to keep you waiting for awhile, perhaps a few days. May I? You won't mind?"
"I can wait for a year as long as waiting means hope," replied Wade, gravely.
"But maybe—it doesn't."
"But it does. If there was no hope, absolutely none, you'd have told me so ten minutes ago, wouldn't you?"
"I suppose so. I don't know. I mean"—she stopped and faced him, half laughing, half serious. "Oh, I don't know what I mean; you've got me all mixed up! Please, let's not talk any more about it now. Let's—let's go home!"