She broke off and began thinking again of her dream. In this white sunshine it was easy to discount it, to talk of excited nerves, to trace the dream itself to the book which she had been reading; but, as she lay between sleep and waking, all had been too real to discount. Destiny had decreed the meeting, as Destiny decreed her smallest impulse.
A shadow fell across her feet. She started and looked up to find Oakleigh standing before her.
"I'm glad to see you about again," he said. "I've come to take Raney away to lunch with the Poynters. Sonia's not here yet?"
"She said she might be a few minutes late," answered O'Rane. "Lady Barbara and I have been sitting in the sun, telling each other how happy we are." O'Rane sat up to catch a sound too indistinct for the others. "And here's Sonia," he added. "We must fly, Lady Barbara, or we shall be horribly late, but won't you walk with us?"
"I'm afraid I must go back," she answered.
Barbara watched the two men walking away with Sonia between them. O'Rane was stooping to keep his fingers inside the great Saint Bernard's collar. Though he was blind, he was happier than she was; though he was blind, he had heard and recognized Sonia's footstep before she did. Some change of mood had overtaken her, and she traced it back to the moment when he asked whether she had received news of Jack....
A car was standing at the door of her house, and she found Dr. Gaisford in the hall.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I meant to tell you I was so much better that I'd gone out," she apologized, rallying under her mother's eye.
The doctor noted the quick dilation of pupil and restless change of expression.
"As I've caught you, I may as well overhaul you," he said.