"And I shan't keep you up late, mother, dear," Lena said with a final
kiss that made Mrs. Quincy wink to keep back the statement that she saw
herself waiting for the return of her daughter.
The fresh evening air was delicious after this. Dick felt all his
chivalry again stirred. It made no difference that Lena said little to
keep up her share in the conversation. Dick was content to do the
entertaining himself, and satisfied when Lena laughed. He bubbled over
with fancies old and new, and even the old ones took fresh life. The
college stories and jokes that everybody knew, the commonplaces of his
world, set Lena exclaiming with delight. The excitement of the night,
and they two alone in the crowd, made the little girl cling to his arm
for fear they might be separated! There were quieter moments when they
wandered to the outskirts and found a bench for a moment's rest.
Once he spoke of some of the rough sides of her work, and she answered
quietly that she was used to such things and managed to forget their
hardship. Dick glanced at her face, self-contained in the gas-light. He
remembered her mother and the ugly room. He had a vision of a sweet
spirit bearing an adverse fate with dignity, and now giving him, in
return for his small act of courtesy, the perfume of her presence, her
beauty, her wondering admiration. For the time it seemed to Lena herself
that she was what he fancied her. She was only showing him, she thought,
the best side of herself. It was natural that she should hide the
other.
The clock in the steeple far above tinkled out ten, and Lena drew
herself to attention.
"Oh, not yet," Dick exclaimed. "Let's go somewhere and get an ice."
Again Lena hesitated. Even so small a luxury tempted her for its own
sake, and she liked to be with Mr. Percival. With Jim Nolan she would
have gone in a moment, but she was determined that this man should not
think her too easy of access.
"I think not," she said reluctantly. "I must go home to mother. She
isn't used to being up late, and she needs my help."
She knew that she had answered well when he urged: "Very well, then. If you will give such very little nibbles of your
time, you must give me more of them. Will you come out again--to the
theater--off in the motor--anywhere?"
Lena could hardly speak, but she smiled up her thanks.
"Oh, Mr. Percival!" she said.
As he walked away after seeing her home, he felt himself irritated with
the other women, the women to whom ease and pleasure are a matter of
course.
So they fell into the way of making little expeditions together, and
Dick no longer joked with Ellery about this delectable morsel of
pinkness, but kept his growing intimacy to himself. This dell by the
way, into which he had strayed by accident, was becoming more
fascinating than the crammed highway with its buzzing life.