“Do you really like it?”
“Why not have it for the rest of your life?”
Her color deepened. “Sometimes I think it would be——” she hesitated.
“Heavenly,” he finished the sentence for her. “Jane, you only have to say the word.”
The waiter, with the first course, interrupted them. When he once more disappeared, Frederick persisted. “I’m going away to-morrow. Won’t you give me my answer to-night? After lunch I’ll take you home and you can rest a bit, and then I’ll come for you and we’ll dine together and see a play.”
She tried to protest, but he pleaded. “This is my day. Don’t spoil it, Jane.”
It was nearly three o’clock when they left the table, and they had a long drive before them. Darkness had descended when they reached the house. It was still snowing.
Bob was up-stairs, walking around the little room like a man in a dream.
“I can’t tell you,” he confided to Jane after Frederick had left, “how queer I felt when I came in and found Miss Martin with the babies, and that stately old woman in the kitchen. And everything going like clockwork. Miss Martin explained, and—well, Towne just waves a wand, doesn’t he, Janey, and makes things happen?”