He pressed her hand.
“You were not ridiculous, Jinny.” She laughed.
“I was not as ridiculous as Mr. Cluyme with his bronze clock. But do you know what I had under my arm—what I was saving of all the things I owned?”
“No,” he answered; “but I have often wondered.” She blushed.
“This house—this place made me think of it. It was Dorothy Manners's gown, and her necklace. I could not leave them. They were all the remembrance I had of that night at Mr. Brinsmade's gate, when we came so near to each other.”
“Virginia,” he said, “some force that we cannot understand has brought us together, some force that we could not hinder. It is foolish for me to say so, but on that day of the slave auction, when I first saw you, I had a premonition about you that I have never admitted until now, even to myself.”
She started.
“Why, Stephen,” she cried, “I felt the same way!”
“And then,” he continued quickly, “it was strange that I should have gone to Judge Whipple, who was an intimate of your father's—such a singular intimate. And then came your party, and Glencoe, and that curious incident at the Fair.”
“When I was talking to the Prince, and looked up and saw you among all those people.”