Thinking thus, she put a napkin over the cake and turned to leave the pantry; but Richard, under pretext of speaking to her mother, had followed her, and now stood in the door barring her exit.
“Joscelyn, how good it is to see you again! Have you thought of me?”
“’Twould have been impossible not to think of you with nothing else being talked of in the house these two months past.”
“But have you missed me?”
“Why, we miss anything to which we have been accustomed.”
“And you sorrowed for me?”
“Truly, Richard, I should be a most hard-hearted girl not to sorrow over such suffering as has been yours.”
“God bless you!” He was so full of joy over the meeting that he did not notice the lack of love-warmth in her voice, but when he would have put his arm about her, she pushed him off with quiet decision.
“Nay, Richard, do not begin that. You told your mother just now that you had but three hours to stay with us; let us not waste a single moment of the time in a useless love-making.”