Page:Caroline Lockhart--The full of the Moon.djvu/180

 "Are you glad to see me, Nan?" He searched her face eagerly, for the hope had grown that he might find something more than friendship in her welcome.

"So very glad, Bob," she answered, "and so amazed!"

A shadow crossed his face; there was only the frank cordiality of comradeship in her tone.

"I expected to surprise you," he returned, "but scarcely anticipated being so surprised myself. The situation was—awkward."

"Your coming as you did was exactly like one of these 'just-in-the-nick-o'-time' stories." Nan smiled up at him gratefully, and he returned the smile with yearning in his eyes. In her bizarre dress she looked more adorable than ever.

Then she presented him to Edith, who gave him her hand shyly and beckoned Ben.

Bob brought with him strongly the atmosphere of the world from which he had come. His well-fitting, inconspicuous clothes, his modulated speech, his poise of manner, bore the stamp of another environment and unconsciously Nan now looked at her present