“But will you do that? It is the only way I can think of, and I must know to-morrow. There is so much to arrange, dear.”
“Very well,” said Isoline, “if I mean ‘yes,’ I will put in the stone. But suppose it should rain.”
“You must come all the same.”
She pouted. Her mind was making itself up, and the surer her decision became, the more she was inclined to play with him.
“What will you do if you find there is no stone there?” she asked.
But he had gone further in life than when they had parted, and his lingering boyhood was slipping from him.
“Do you understand how serious this is?” he said rather sternly. “Don’t trifle, Isoline. It is ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ and it is for you to decide it.”
She wondered, for a moment, whether she really liked him as much as she had supposed.
“I am not angry,” he said, holding out his hand and fearing he had been harsh, “but I am so anxious, darling.”
She hesitated a moment before taking hers out of her muff.