Page:Christopher Morley--Tales from a rolltop desk.djvu/76

"No, Arthur—it was I who was wrong. I—I've given up the Lovelorn."

And then, after a sudden moisture of eye on both sides, the steaming minestrone came on in its battered leaden tureen from which the silver plating disappeared long ago, and under pretense of serving her soup Arthur stretched out his hand. She put out hers to meet it, and found the ring slipped deftly back on her finger.

"But, Arthur," she said, presently, "I thought you were out of town."

"I was," he said. "I've got a new job, with King and Company in Boston. A good job, too, we can be married right away, and you don't need to worry."

"Well, how did you happen to come here to-night? You didn't know I was going to be here. I didn't know it myself until an hour or so ago."

"Perhaps I willed you to come, who knows?" he said, gaily. "Have you been advising lovers all this while, and didn't know that they always haunt the scenes of former felicity? I've been in town several days, and came here every night."

He produced a copy of the Evening Planet which he had been reading when she came in.

"I had a special reason for thinking you might come here to-night," he said. "This afternoon I