'I brought some candy,' he cried fiercely. 'There! On the table!'
She knit her brows for a brief moment. Then opened the box.
'How awfully nice of you... You'll have some?'
'No. I don't eat candy. I was thinking of--I want to get you out--Come on, let's take a walk!'
She smiled a little, around a chocolate. Surely she didn't know!
She had seemed, during her first days in Sunbury, rather timid at times. But there was in this smile more than a touch of healthy self-confidence. No girl, indeed, could find herself making so definite a success as Cicely had made here from her first day without acquiring at least the beginnings of self-confidence. It was a success that had forced Elbow Jenkins and Herb de Casselles to ignore small rebuffs and persist in fighting over her. It permitted her, even in a village where social conformity was the breath of life, to do odd, unexpected things. Such as allowing herself to be interested, frankly, in Henry Calverly.
So she smiled as she nibbled a chocolate.
'I was thinking of asking you to take a walk.'
'Well'--still that smile--'why don't you?'
But he was still in a daze, and pressed stupidly on.
'It's a fine evening. And the moon'll be coming up.'
'I'll get my sweater,' she said quietly, and went out to the hall.
She was just turning away from the hall closet with the sweater--he, hat and stick in hand, was fighting back the memory of how Senator Watt had marched stiffly to that same closet--when Madame Watt came down the stairs, scowling intently, still breathing hard.
She saw them; came toward them; stood, pursing her lips, finally forcing a sort of smile.
'Oh, howdadoo!' she remarked, toward Henry.
Her black eyes focused pointedly on him. And while he was mumbling a greeting, she broke in on him with this:--'I didn't know you were here. Did you just come?' Henry's eyes lowered. Then, as utter silence fell, the colour surging to his face, he raised them. They met her black, alarmed stare. He felt that he ought to lie about this, lie like a good one. But he didn't know how.
Slowly, all confusion, he shook his head.
During a long moment they held that gaze, the vigorous, strangely interesting woman of wealth and of what must have been a violent past, and the gifted, sensitive youth of twenty. When she turned away, they had a secret.