“It was nice over there at the Berkeley,” he commented, thinking of an inn they had just left. “Beautiful grounds—and that music! It was delightful, wasn’t it?” They had been dancing together.
“Oh, dear,” she sighed, “the summer will soon be over, and then I’ll have to be going back, I suppose. I wish it would never end. I wish I could stay here forever, just like this, if you were here.” She stopped and looked at the treetops, taking a full breath and stretching out her arms. “And do look at those fire-flies,” she added, “aren’t they wonderful?” She hung back, watching the flashing fire-flies under the trees.
“Why not sit down here a little while?” he proposed as they neared the steps. “It isn’t late yet.”
“Do you really mean it?” she asked warmly.
“You see, I’m beginning to be so foolish as to want to trust you. Isn’t that idiotic? Yes, I’m even going to risk fifteen minutes with you.”
“I wish you two would quit your teasing, just once,” she pleaded. “I wish you would learn to trust me and leave Blount behind just once in a while, seeing that I’ve told you so often that I mean to do nothing to hurt you without telling you beforehand.”
Gregory looked at her, pleased. He was moved, a little sorry for her, and a little sorrier for himself.
In spite of himself, his wife and baby, as he now saw, he had come along a path he should not have, and with one whom he could not conscientiously respect or revere. There was no future for them together, as he well knew, now or at any other time. Still he lingered.
“Well, here we are,” he said, “alone at last. Now you can do your worst, and I have no one to protect me.”
“It would serve you right if I did, Mr. Smarty. But if I had suggested that we sit down for a minute you would have believed that the wood was full of spies. It’s too funny for words, the way you carry on. But you’ll have to let me go upstairs to change my shoes, just the same. They’ve been hurting me dreadfully, and I can’t stand them another minute. If you want to, you can come up to the other balcony, or I’ll come back here. I won’t be a minute. Do you mind?”