“If you find it a handicap being engaged to me...”
“Don't be silly.” Gerald took refuge in pathos. “Good God! It's tough! Here am I, worried to death, and you...”
Before he could finish the sentence, Sally's mood had undergone one of those swift changes which sometimes made her feel that she must be lacking in character. A simple, comforting thought had come to her, altering her entire outlook. She had come off the train tired and gritty, and what seemed the general out-of-jointness of the world was entirely due, she decided, to the fact that she had not had a bath and that her hair was all anyhow. She felt suddenly tranquil. If it was merely her grubby and dishevelled condition that made Gerald seem to her so different, all was well. She put her hand on his with a quick gesture of penitence.
“I'm so sorry,” she said. “I've been a brute, but I do sympathize, really.”
“I've had an awful time,” mumbled Gerald.
“I know, I know. But you never told me you were glad to see me.”
“Of course I'm glad to see you.”
“Why didn't you say so, then, you poor fish? And why didn't you ask me if I had enjoyed myself in Europe?”
“Did you enjoy yourself?”
“Yes, except that I missed you so much. There! Now we can consider my lecture on foreign travel finished, and you can go on telling me your troubles.”
Gerald accepted the invitation. He spoke at considerable length, though with little variety. It appeared definitely established in his mind that Providence had invented Spanish influenza purely with a view to wrecking his future. But now he seemed less aloof, more open to sympathy. The brief thunderstorm had cleared the air. Sally lost that sense of detachment and exclusion which had weighed upon her.
“Well,” said Gerald, at length, looking at his watch, “I suppose I had better be off.”
“Rehearsal?”
“Yes, confound it. It's the only way of getting through the day. Are you coming
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