“Such a wet night. Who would have thought it was going to rain? I was afraid you were not coming at first,” she added. “At dinner Mrs. Cressler said you had an important committee meeting⁠—something to do with the Art Institute, the award of prizes; was that it?”

“Oh, yes,” he answered, indifferently, “something of the sort was on. I suppose it was important⁠—for the Institute. But for me there is only one thing of importance nowadays,” he spoke with a studied carelessness, as though announcing a fact that Laura must know already, “and that is, to be near you. It is astonishing. You have no idea of it, how I have ordered my whole life according to that idea.”

“As though you expected me to believe that,” she answered.