The girl shook her head.
“No,” she said steadily. “No one can help me. I can’t even help myself. That’s the curse of it. There’s nothing to do but wait.” The folded hands changed position one above the other, and after a moment returned as before. “Do you understand?” she queried without preface.
An instant Roberts hesitated, but an instant only.
“Yes, I think so. You intimated you were expecting some one to come.”
“Something to happen,” substituted the girl.
“It’s all the same,” evenly. 342
Silence followed for a space while they sat there so; breaking it, the girl looked at the other directly.
“I have refused him definitely,” she said, without consciousness of the seeming ambiguity of the remark. “I did so last night.”
“Yes,” very low; and that was all.
The girl drew a long breath, like one preparing for the unknown.