Page:In The Cage (London, Duckworth, 1898).djvu/192

186 'And didn't he want to?'

'Not before.'

'Not before she recovered the telegram?'

Mrs. Jordan was pulled up a little. 'Was it a telegram?'

The girl hesitated. 'I thought you said so. I mean whatever it was.'

'Yes, whatever it was, I don't think she saw that.'

'So she just nailed him?'

'She just nailed him.' The departing friend was now at the bottom of the little flight of steps; the other was at the top, with a certain thickness of fog. 'And when am I to think of you in your little home?—next month?' asked the voice from the top.

'At the very latest. And when am I to think of you in yours?'

'Oh, even sooner. I feel, after so much talk with you about it, as if I were already there!' Then 'Good-bye!' came out of the fog.

'Good-bye!' went into it. Our young lady went into it also, in the opposed quarter, and presently, after a few sightless turns, came out