Elizabeth was all smiles when she joined him, and they went down the long stairs together. The dinner was a delight to her; the well-cooked and daintily served food, the pretty table appointments, and the music from the balcony, all seemed like a breath from the past—from the time before she became absorbed in what she called her “life work.”
“It is so long since I have been in such a delightful place as this, with the prospect of such a dinner, that you must not expect me to talk,” she said, when he had given the order, after due consultation with her over the menu. “But I am a good listener, and you can tell me about what you have been doing.”
“It is neither a very long nor a very exciting narration,” he replied, laughing. “You gave me such a very decided answer, three years ago, that I haven’t had the courage to look at a woman since, and if you can’t find a woman in three years of a man’s life, it is safe to say that it has been uneventful.” She looked at him apprehensively, for there was one topic which she had determined to avoid, and here he was rushing into it before the oysters were served.
“No, no. It isn’t that which I wish to know about,” she said, hastily. “But tell me what you have been doing; what you are doing now.”
“This evening I am dining with some one whom I have thought of every day since I saw her last,” he answered, gallantly. “During the day I spend most of my time in a disagreeable office, working for money which I do not need, because that seems to be the custom of American men. That has been my life for half of each of these three years; the alternate six months I have spent in Florence with my mother.”
“I envy you the Florentine portion of the year,” she said, looking at him a little wistfully. “Some day, when my ship comes in, I hope to spend a long time there.”
“I go back in two months,” he said, eagerly. “My mother would be delighted to see you, if you would come over with me.”
“Ah, but my ship may be delayed longer than that and——”
“There is a ship always at your disposal, now as it was three years ago,” he interrupted, but she made a gesture of protest.
“It is good to see you again, Tom; it is nice to be with you. Please don’t make it necessary for me to send you away again. Let’s just be friends, and let me feel that I have your sympathy and affection in the struggle I am having with my life work.”