She said, after a silence: "If it lies with me, you really will love me some day."
"Dearest!" he protested, laughing but perplexed. "Don't you know that I love you now—that I am absolutely mad about you?"
She did not answer, and he waited, striving to see her expression through the veil. But when he offered to lift it, she gently avoided him.
"Did you go to business?" she asked quietly.
"I? Oh, yes, I went back to the office. But Lord! Jacqueline, I couldn't keep my attention on the tape or on the silly orders people fired at me over the wire. So I left young Seely in charge and went to lunch with Jack Cairns; and then he and I returned to the office, where I've been fidgeting about ever since. I think it's been the longest day I ever lived."
"It has been a long day," she assented gravely. "Did Mr. Cairns speak to you of Cynthia?"
"He mentioned her, I believe."
"Do you remember what he said about her?"
"Well, yes. I think he spoke about her very nicely—about her being interesting and ambitious and talented—something of that sort—but how could I keep my mind on what he was saying about another girl?"
Jacqueline looked out of the window across a waste of swamp and trestle and squalid buildings toward University Heights. She said presently, without turning: