"Explanations are always bores, my dear boy. There is a little girl
who feels obliged to insist on formalities, not too many. She'll think
your acting as the parson the best joke in the world, but it would not
do to chaff her about it."
"Oh, I see," and Langdon's laugh was not pleasant.
"Exactly. You will have everything ready--white choker, black coat and
all the rest of it, and now, my dear boy, you've got to excuse me as
I've got a lot of work on hand."
They shook hands and Langdon's footsteps were soon echoing down the
corridor.
The foul insinuation that Sanderson had just made about Anna rankled in
his mind. He went to the sideboard and poured himself out a good stiff
drink. After that, his conscience did not trouble him.
The work on account of which he excused himself from Langdon's society,
was apparently not of the most pressing order, for Sanderson almost
immediately started for Boston, turning his steps towards Mrs. Standish
Tremont's.
"Mrs. Tremont was not at home," the man announced at the door, "and
Mrs. Endicott was confined to her room with a bad headache. Should he
take his card to Miss Moore?"
Sanderson assented, feeling that fate was with him.
"My darling," he said, as Anna came in a moment later, and folded her
close in a long embrace. She was paler than when he had last seen her
and there were dark rings under her eyes that hinted at long night
vigils.
"Lennox," she said, "do not think me weak, but I am terribly
frightened. It does not seem as if we were doing the right thing by
our friends."
"Goosey girl," he said, kissing her, "who was it that said no marriage
ever suited all parties unconcerned?"
She laughed. "I am thinking more of you Lennox, than of myself.
Suppose your father should not forgive you, cut you off without a cent,
and you should have to drudge all your life with mother and me on your
hands! Don't you think you would wish we had never met, or, at least,
that I had thought of these things?"
"Suppose the sky should fall, or the sun should go out, or that I could
stop loving you, or any of the impossible things that could not happen
once in a million years. Aren't you ashamed of yourself to doubt me in
this way? Answer me, miss," he said with mock ferocity.
For answer she laid her cheek against his.--"I am so happy, dear, that
I am almost afraid."