"Come to the office and we'll talk it over."
"I don't like to go there; Miss Simpson is suspicious."
The institution she spoke of was in another city. It occurred to Wilson
that if she took it the affair would have reached a graceful and legitimate
end.
Also, the thought of another stolen evening alone with her was not
unpleasant. It would be the last, he promised himself. After all, it was
owing to her. He had treated her badly.
Sidney would be at a lecture that night. The evening loomed temptingly
free.
"Suppose you meet me at the old corner," he said carelessly, eyes on the
Lamb, who was forgetting that he was only a junior interne and was glaring
ferociously. "We'll run out into the country and talk things over."
She demurred, with her heart beating triumphantly.
"What's the use of going back to that? It's over, isn't it?"
Her objection made him determined. When at last she had yielded, and he
made his way down to the smoking-room, it was with the feeling that he had
won a victory.
K. had been uneasy all that day; his ledgers irritated him. He had been
sleeping badly since Sidney's announcement of her engagement. At five
o'clock, when he left the office, he found Joe Drummond waiting outside on
the pavement.
"Mother said you'd been up to see me a couple of times. I thought I'd come
around."
K. looked at his watch.
"What do you say to a walk?"
"Not out in the country. I'm not as muscular as you are. I'll go about
town for a half-hour or so."
Thus forestalled, K. found his subject hard to lead up to. But here again
Joe met him more than halfway.
"Well, go on," he said, when they found themselves in the park; "I don't
suppose you were paying a call."
"No."
"I guess I know what you are going to say."
"I'm not going to preach, if you're expecting that. Ordinarily, if a man
insists on making a fool of himself, I let him alone."
"Why make an exception of me?"
"One reason is that I happen to like you. The other reason is that,
whether you admit it or not, you are acting like a young idiot, and are
putting the responsibility on the shoulders of some one else."
"She is responsible, isn't she?"
"Not in the least. How old are you, Joe?"