“Milton’s line, Eris, not mine.... ‘Things unattempted.’... And latent in you.... Not within me ... unless you give them.”
Her grey eyes said: “If they truly are in me you have only to take.” Her lips tenderly denied such possession, attributing all origin to him.
The boy said: “God knows where it comes from; but it is in me only when you are near.”
She rested her cool cheek against his. Her career was paid for.
“One thing,” he said with an embarrassed grin, “is likely to annoy you. But I’ve got to show it to you. You haven’t seen to-day’s papers, have you?”
“No.... Oh, Barry!——”
“You bet, sweetheart. It’s the announcement of our engagement.”
“Darling! How wonderful! And what do you mean by my being annoyed? I authorised you to announce it any time in May it suited you.”
“That’s it,” he admitted. “I was to send the announcement to the papers. But I didn’t know how such things were done so I was ass enough to go to my Aunt about it.”
Eris flushed. “Was Mrs. Grandcourt annoyed?”