“You seem unusually thoughtful to-night, Jack!” exclaimed the girl, tenderly smoothing his hair as they stood together clasped in each other’s arms.
“Do I?” he answered with a start. “I really didn’t know,” he laughed, aroused from his deep thoughts.
“You are, Jack. Why?”
“I—well, I’m really not—except perhaps—”
“Perhaps what?” asked Elise determinedly.
“Well, I had rather a heavy day at the office,” was her lover’s hesitating reply. “And I’ve just remembered something.”
“Oh! business. And that’s all?”
“Yes, business, dearest,” was his reply. “I must apologise if my thoughts were, for the moment, far away,” he laughed.
“You’re like father,” said the girl. “He sits by the fire sometimes for a quarter of an hour at a stretch staring into it, and thinking of his horrid business affairs. But of course business is an obsession with him.”
“Perhaps when I’m your father’s age it will be an obsession with me,” replied Jack Sainsbury.