"I fancy," he said, "that you'll admit your chief objection to me has always been my origin, my ridiculous position trotting watchfully behind the most unsocial Miss Planter. Am I not right?"
"You are entirely wrong," she said, wearily. "That has never had anything to do with my—my dislike. I think I shall go——"
"Wait," he said. "You are not telling me the truth. If you are consistent you will turn your enmity to friendship at least. You will decide there was nothing unusual in my asking you to marry me. You will even find in that a reason for my anxiety at Upton. You will understand that it is quite inevitable I should ask you to marry me again."
She sprang up and hurried away from him.
"Put on another record, Dolly——"
And almost before he had realized it Betty had taken her away, and the evening's opportunities had closed.
V
For him the house became like a room at night out of which the only lamp has been carried.
The others drifted away. George tried to read in the library. His uneasiness, his anger, held him from bed. When at last he went upstairs he fancied everyone was asleep, but moving in the hall outside his room he saw a figure in a dressing gown. It paused as if it didn't care to be detected going in the direction of the stairs. George caught the figure's embarrassed hesitation, fancied a movement of retreat.
"Dalrymple!" he called, softly.