She turned her face to him gratefully, but he did not meet her look. They were on the driveway of Fairview.
"I suppose you think me very silly for asking such questions," she said.
"No," he answered gravely, "but politics are so intricate a subject that they are often not understood by those who are in the midst of them. I admire—I think it is very fine in you to want to know."
"You are not one of the men who would not wish a woman to know, are you?"
"No," he said, "no, I'm not."
The note of pain in his voice surprised and troubled her. They were almost in sight of the house.
"I asked you to come to Fairview," she said, assuming a lightness of tone, "and you never appeared. I thought it was horrid of you to forget, after we'd been such friends."
"I didn't forget," replied Austen.
"Then you didn't want to come."
He looked into her eyes, and she dropped them.