He had taken it for granted that she would say yes when he could screw up his courage to speak. She had treated him as if he were already in the family.
"Confound it," he muttered, clenching his big fist, "that's what worries me! Maybe she just thinks of me as one of her brothers!"
It hadn't occurred to him until he saw the light kindle in her eyes at the sight of that smooth-tongued reptilian foreigner. He was on his way now to her house, to put the thing to the test before she could leave Washington. Thank God, the spider was tied down here at the Sardinian Ministry. He hoped Victor Emmanuel would send him as Consul to Shanghai.
Mrs. Barton met him at the door with a motherly smile.
"Walk right in the parlor, Dick. It's sweet of you to come so early to-day. We're all in tears, packing to go. Jennie'll be delighted to see you. Poor child--she's sick over it all."
Mrs. Barton pressed Dick's hand with the softest touch that reassured his fears. The only trouble about Mrs. Barton was she was gentle and friendly to everybody, black and white, old and young, Yankee or Southerner. She was even sorry for old John Brown when they hung him.
"Poor thing, he was crazy," she said tenderly. "They ought to have sent him to the asylum."
Try as he might, he couldn't fling off the impression of tragedy the meeting of Socola with Jennie had produced. He was in a nervous fit to see and tell her of his love. Why the devil hadn't he done so before anyhow? They might have been engaged and ready to be married by this time. They had met when she was sixteen.
Why on earth couldn't he throw off the fool idea that he was going to lose her? His big fist suddenly closed with resolution.
"I'll not lose her! I'll wring that viper's neck--I'll wade through blood and death and the fires of h--"
Just as he was plunging waist deep through the flames of the Pit, she appeared in the door, the picture of wistful, tender beauty.
Her hand was hot, her eyes heavy with tears.
"As if you didn't know--I've been saying good-by to some of the dearest friends I've ever known. It's terrible. I just feel it's the end of the world--"
He started to say: "Don't worry, Jennie darling, you have me. I love you!" The thought of it made the cold beads of perspiration suddenly stand out on his forehead. It was one thing to think such things--another to say it aloud to a girl with Jennie's serious brown eyes.