"Well, we might as well be done with it," exclaimed Ronald. "It's no time for making speeches, is it? You know how I feel, Nancy. I am not good at disguising my feelings, but I do hope that, whatever comes of all this mixup, you will be happy. That, after all, is the important thing."
Nancy looked away as though her eyes were intent upon the sunlit boldness of the slope. She was too well schooled to betray emotion in the ordinary ways, by nervous play of the hands, by shifting of the feet, but the tense posture of her body suggested to observant eyes the strain she was meeting; Ronald's eyes were too observant to be at ease in watching her. The man turned away. The steadily mounting splendor of the sun gave him courage.
"A priceless pair of fools we are," he said, suddenly, "a priceless pair of fools, mooning like this on such a splendid morning. They'll be wondering if we're never coming to breakfast. Good-bye, Nancy."
He took her hand and held it a moment. The girl thanked him with a grateful look for this brusque loyalty. For the last most difficult time she was able, by his help, to subdue the protesting voices of her blood.
"Good-bye, Ronald," she said quietly.
And so their parting was accomplished.
CHAPTER XXV
Nancy and Edward made a very different return from their homecoming of a year before. The girl would not hear of her friends walking with her; farewells were so painful that she wished to be finished with them, whatever the cost to her feelings, and get what peace she could from the dull melancholy of the journey in her chair. There was not much peace in the slow procession over the hills. Her eyes burned from weariness, her mind scanned discontentedly every word she had spoken in the three crises of the past twenty-four hours, yet suggested no better words in their place.
Almost to her surprise, her father looked better and stronger than he had seemed for months. He greeted his returned children with his old hearty affection. Nancy had feared to find him again in bondage to Kuei-lien; if she had found the fogs of that evil spell clouding the household, the daughter might well have turned her chair round, given up the fight for her father, gone back to Ronald.