"
"By Jove!" he exclaimed, coming to his feet with a new light in
his eyes. The hollows in his cheeks seemed to fill out perceptibly.
"Good-night!"
"I say, Sara dear, you'll--you'll help me a bit, won't you? I mean,
you'll talk it over with her and--"
"My sympathy is entirely with Miss Castleton," she said from the
doorway. His jaw dropped.
He was still ruminating over the callousness of the world in respect
to lovers when she mounted the stairs and tapped firmly on Hetty's
door.
His hopes began to revive. A new thought had entered in and lodged
securely among them, bracing them up amazingly. "By Jove," he said
to himself, staring hard at the floor, "I dare say I did go about
it badly. Sara was clever enough to see it. I must have taken her
off her feet with my confounded earnestness. Girls do lose their
heads, bless 'em, if you go at them with a rush. I'm sure she'll
look at it differently when she's had time to compose herself."
He was perplexed, however, over something he had not revealed to
Sara, and his sudden frown proved that it was still disturbing him.
"I can't for the life of me understand why she should have been so
damned horrified at the idea."
He started for the dining-room, recalling his need of a drink,
but changed his mind in the hall. Grabbing up his hat and stick,
he darted out of the house and was soon swinging briskly down the
moonlit avenue.
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