“I’ve got to go. It’s just madness for me to stay another minute. I’ll give you my card.”

“Well, leave me here,” Page urged. “It can’t be helped. I’m all right. Give me your card. I’ll tell the guide in the gallery that you kept the seat for me⁠—if I ever can get there. You must go. Don’t stay another minute. If you can, come for me here in the gallery, when it’s over. I’ll wait for you. But if you can’t come, all right. I can take care of myself.”

He could but assent to this. This was no time to think of small things. He left her and bore back with all his might through the crowd, gained the landing at the turn of the balustrade, waved his hat to her and disappeared.