"And, Jack--do you know," she went on, "all the newspapers have been
full of you. You are quite a celebrity. And are you really as rich
as they say?"
Jack Meredith was conscious of a very slight check--it was not
exactly a jar. His feeling was that rather of a man who thinks that
he is swimming in deep water, and finds suddenly that he can touch
the bottom.
"I think I can safely say that I am not," he answered.
And it was from that eminently practical point that they departed
into the future--arranging that same, and filling up its blanks with
all the wisdom of lovers and the rest of us.
Lady Cantourne left them there for nearly an hour, in which space of
time she probably reflected they could build up as rosy a future as
was good for them to contemplate. Then she returned to the drawing-
room, followed by a full-sized footman bearing tea.
She was too discreet a woman--too deeply versed in the sudden
changes of the human mind and heart--to say anything until one of
them should give her a distinct lead. They were not shy and awkward
children. Perhaps she reflected that the generation to which they
belonged is not one heavily handicapped by too subtle a delicacy of
feeling.
Jack Meredith gave her the lead before long.
"Millicent," he said, without a vestige of embarrassment, "has
consented to be openly engaged now.
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