“As soon as you try to dodge ’em.”
He looked very tired, and his voice had lost something of the buoyant quality of youth which she had always associated with him. A different note crept into her own when she spoke again.
“I had a long letter from Marcia to-day.”
“Is she well?” The tone was politely formal, but she saw the color rise in his face and marked the pathetic eagerness in his eyes.
“She’s the same Marcia Ames. Even to the name.”
He caught at the opportunity. “She’s not married yet?”
“No. Her fiancé is fighting. Somewhere in the remote colonies, I believe.”
“Fiancé?”
“Surely you knew that she was engaged; a young cousin of her stepfather’s. It was an affair of years.”
“Not when she was here,” Jeremy blurted.