She picked out a less
elegant resort, and on issuing from its portal at the hour she had
fixed she saw the young man standing apart. She offered him no
recognition till she had crossed the street and he had followed her
to some distance. Here, with a smile--"Excuse my apparent want of
cordiality," she said. "You know what to believe about that.
Prudence before everything." And on his asking her in what direction
they should walk, "Where we shall be least observed," she murmured.
Morris was not in high good-humour, and his response to this speech
was not particularly gallant. "I don't flatter myself we shall be
much observed anywhere." Then he turned recklessly toward the centre
of the town. "I hope you have come to tell me that he has knocked
under," he went on.
"I am afraid I am not altogether a harbinger of good; and yet, too, I
am to a certain extent a messenger of peace. I have been thinking a
great deal, Mr. Townsend," said Mrs. Penniman.
"You think too much."
"I suppose I do; but I can't help it, my mind is so terribly active.
When I give myself, I give myself. I pay the penalty in my
headaches, my famous headaches--a perfect circlet of pain! But I
carry it as a queen carries her crown. Would you believe that I have
one now? I wouldn't, however, have missed our rendezvous for
anything. I have something very important to tell you."
"Well, let's have it," said Morris.
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