turned her face quite away from him, showing him so long a mere quarter
of her cheek that she at last again heard his voice. He couldn't see a
pair of tears that were partly the reason of her delay to give him the
assurance he required; but he expressed at a venture the hope that she
had had her fill of Cocker's.

She was finally able to turn back. "Oh quite. There's nothing going on.
No one comes but the Americans at Thrupp's, and they don't do much. They
don't seem to have a secret in the world."

"Then the extraordinary reason you've been giving me for holding on there
has ceased to work?"

She thought a moment. "Yes, that one. I've seen the thing through--I've
got them all in my pocket."

"So you're ready to come?"

For a little again she made no answer. "No, not yet, all the same. I've
still got a reason--a different one."

He looked her all over as if it might have been something she kept in her
mouth or her glove or under her jacket--something she was even sitting
upon. "Well, I'll have it, please."

"I went out the other night and sat in the Park with a gentleman," she
said at last.

Nothing was ever seen like his confidence in her and she wondered a
little now why it didn't irritate her. It only gave her ease and space,