He sat there without conscious thoughts, without sense of the lapse of time, in a deep and grave amazement that seemed to suspend life rather than quicken it. “This was what had to be, then … this was what had to be,” he kept repeating to himself, as if he hung in the clutch of doom. What he had dreamed of had been so different that there was a mortal chill in his rapture.
The door opened and May came in.
“I’m dreadfully late—you weren’t worried, were you?” she asked, laying her hand on his shoulder with one of her rare caresses.
He looked up astonished. “Is it late?”
“After seven. I believe you’ve been asleep!” She laughed, and drawing out her hat pins tossed her velvet hat on the sofa. She looked paler than usual, but sparkling with an unwonted animation.
“I went to see Granny, and just as I was going away Ellen came in from a walk;