He forgot the fierce strife so lately ended; forgot the double victory he had won.
"But--but Van Lew," he stammered--"he told me that you--that he--" and then he took her in his arms and kissed her, while a young man with a bandaged head--a man who answered to the name of Jack Benson, and who was hastening up to get permission to go home to Faith Dawson--turned his back considerately and walked away.
"What were you going to say about Herbert?" she murmured, when he let her have breath enough to speak with.
"I was merely going to remark that he can"t have you now, not if he were ten thousand times your accepted lover."
She escaped from his arms and ran lightly up the steps of the private car. And from the safe vantage-ground of the half-opened door she turned and mocked him.
"Silly boy," she said softly. "Can"t you read print when it"s large enough to shout at all the world? Herbert and Carolyn have been "announced" for more than three months, and they are to be married when we get back to New York. That"s all; good-night, and don"t you dare to forget your breakfast engagement!"