She looked forward eagerly to the promised talk with Irene and after
supper she hurried down town and was shot upward in the tall office
building. She found Irene and John sitting opposite each other at a
large flat top desk. Irene was helping John to compare descriptions of
property but she would be free in a moment. He showed Grace into the
big library and laughingly gave her a law magazine to read, saying it
was the lightest literature the place afforded.
The dingy volumes on the shelves impressed her with a sense of the
continuity of law through all the ages. She glanced idly at the titles,
Torts, Contracts, Wills, Injunctions,--there must, in this world, be
order, rule and law! Life, nobly considered, was impossible without
law. It was the height of folly that she had ever fancied herself a
rebel, confident of her right to do as she pleased. She had made her
mistakes; henceforth she meant to walk circumspectly in the eyes of all
men. She envied Irene her happiness with John; as for herself, love had
brought her nothing but sorrow and heartache.
Her speculations were interrupted by the rustle of papers in the
adjoining room. The door was half ajar and glancing in she saw a man
seated at a desk, busily scanning formidable looking documents and
affixing his signature.
Absorbed in his work he was evidently unaware that he was observed. Her
heart beat wildly as she watched him. She stifled a desire to call to
him; checked an impulse to run to him. Irene had played a trick upon
her in thus bringing her so near to Trenton! She wondered whether he
had seen her and was purposely ignoring her. Or, he might think she
had suggested this to Irene. Her face burned; she would escape somehow.
As she watched him he lifted his head with a sigh, threw himself back
wearily in his chair and stared at the wall. No; she would not speak to
him; never again would she speak to him. Panic-stricken she turned and
began cautiously tiptoeing toward the hall door with no thought but to
leave the place at once.
But, the door gained, her heart beat suffocatingly; she could not go;
she did love him, and to run away--
She stole into the room without disturbing his reverie, and laid her
hand lightly on his shoulder.
“I couldn’t go--I couldn’t leave you--”
Then she was on her knees beside him, looking up into his startled eyes.
He raised her to her feet, tenderly, reverently, gazing eagerly into
her face.
“How did you know?” he cried, his eyes alight.
“I didn’t know; it just happened. I--I saw you--and I just couldn’t run
away!”
“Oh, say that again! I’ve missed you so! You can’t know how I’ve missed
and needed you!”
“Do you--do you love me,” she asked softly, “as you used to think you
did?”
“Oh, more--more than all the world!”