“I really ought not to have spent so much,” she said as they went home. “But it is rather nice, isn’t it?”
“Micky will be absolutely bowled over,” June declared. “I shall have to take a back seat all the evening.”
And Micky apparently was “bowled over,” judging by the look that crept into his eyes when he arrived and found Esther alone in the sitting-room.
June was late, as usual; she called out to him from her room that she wouldn’t be half a minute.
“There’s no hurry,” Micky answered quickly. He went over to where Esther stood, a little flushed and shy in her new frock.
“It’s very kind of you to come,” he said rather agitatedly. She looked up.
“It’s very kind of you to ask me,” she answered. She felt much more at her ease with him now. She knew that she was looking particularly pretty. “And it isn’t the first time we have had dinner together, is it?” she asked.
He answered eagerly that he was glad she remembered; he had almost thought she must have forgotten.
“No, I shall never forget that, though it seems so long ago since that night. I was unhappy then, but now....”
“But now?” he asked as she paused.