I was completely taken by surprise. He closed the door upon Mopsie, and came back and reseated himself at the fire. He sat on one side of the fireplace, and I at the other, and the flames danced between us. He shaded his face with his hand, and looked across at me; and I watched intently a great tree falling in the depths of a burning forest among the embers.
"Is this true, Margery," said John, "that you are going to leave us, and return to London?"
"I am thinking of it," I said pleasantly.
"I thought—I had hoped you were happy with us," he said.
"Yes," I said, "I have been very happy, but I think I want a little change."
How my heart ached with the effort of uttering that untruth! I knew that I wanted no change.
"I do not wonder at it," he said after a pause. "We have made a slave of you. You are tired of it, and you are going away."
He said this bitterly and sorrowfully, shading his eyes still more with his hand.
"No, no," I said, "you must not say that. I never was so happy in my life as I have been here."
I spoke more eagerly than I meant to do, and my voice broke a little in spite of me. John left his seat and bent down beside me, so that he could see my face, which could not escape him.