Surely not! Yet he yearned over her so. And it was so
delightful.

She arose at dawn and began silently to dress, thinking that she might
take a walk, leaving a note for Eugene as to where to come and find her
if he could. She had one appointment for the day. Later she would have
to go home, but things would come out all right. Since Eugene had
compelled Angela to relinquish her determination to inform her mother,
all must be well. They would meet, she and Eugene. She would leave her
home and be his and they would go anywhere, anywhere Eugene desired,
only she would prefer to persuade her mother to see things from her
point of view and later countenance some understanding between them
here. Because of Angela's and Eugene's position here, she preferred
this. Because of her youth and her poetic, erratic conception of life,
she assumed that she could overcome her mother and that she and Eugene
could live together somewhere in peace. Her friends might either be
unaware of the situation, or they could be told, some of them, and they
might countenance it because it was so beautiful and natural!

Eugene heard her stirring after a time, and rose and went to her room
and knocked. When she opened the door almost fully dressed a thrill of
pain passed over his heart, for he thought that she had been intending
to slip away without seeing him any more--so little they really knew
each other. But as she stood there, a little cool or still or sober from
much thought and the peculiar nature of her position, she seemed more
beautiful than ever.

"You're not going, are you?" he asked, as she looked up at him with
inquiring eyes.

"I thought I'd go for a walk."

"Without me?"

"I intended to see you, if I could, or leave a note for you to come to
me. I thought you would."

"Will you wait for me?" he asked, feeling as though he must hold her
close forever in order to live. "Just a little bit. I want to change my
clothes." He took her in his arms.

"Yes," she said softly.

"You won't go without me?"

"No. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I love you so!" he replied, and pushed her head back and looked
yearningly into her eyes.

She took his tired face between her hands and studied his eyes. She was
so enrapt by him now in this first burst of affection that she could see
nothing but him. He seemed so beautiful, so hungry! It did not matter to
her now that she was in the home of his wife or that his love was
complicated with so much that