“Pidge, listen! I couldn’t stand any more than that now. To have you say that—us! To have the work with you—to have earned that—to have your faith; that you dare come this close—to have years to make the big moments we have known apart, come true together—I couldn’t stand more, right now; that’s the fact of it—quite!”
She stepped back from him looking strangely into his face again.
“Dicky!”
“Yes?”
“The boy has come back to your face—that you lost in Africa—but the new and lasting Boy!”
He laughed and looked around the room. It was furnished, but barely, the “parlor” having reverted to a sleeping room.
“But how did it happen—that we should come here, Pidge?”
“I couldn’t let you come to Gramercy Park. I remembered that you waited to see me here after Africa, not at the office. I came down this way—the afternoon of the Legacy and saw the sign, ‘Rooms, Permanent and Transient.’... I’m better now. It’s been hours, hasn’t it?”
He thought of Conrad, whom he had told to wait.
“... This room’s all paid for,” she whispered. “I mean we don’t have to stop to speak to anybody—only walk out.”