The coast lay clear. The lovers came cautiously out, and silently too, for what they had heard puzzled them not a little.
Mary came out first, and wore a very meditative look. She did not say a word till they got to some little distance from the workshop. Then she half turned her head toward Walter, who was behind her, and said, "I suppose you know we have done a contemptible thing--listening?"
"Well," said Walter, "it wasn't good form; but," added he, "we could hardly help it."
"Of course not," said Mary. "We have been guilty of a concealment that drives us into holes and corners, and all manner of meannesses must be expected to follow. Well, we _have_ listened, and I am very glad of it; for it is plain we are not the only people who have got secrets. Now tell me, please, what does it all mean?"
"Well, Mary," said Walter, "to tell the truth, it is all Greek to me, except about the money. I think I could give a guess where that came from."
"There, now!" cried Mary; "that is so like you gentlemen. Money--money--money! Never mind the money part; leave that to take care of itself. Can you explain what Mr. Hope said to papa about _me_? Mr. Hope is a very superior man, and papa's adviser _in business_. But, after all, he is in papa's employment. Papa _pays_ him. Then how comes he to care more about my happiness than papa does--and say so?"
"Yes," said Mary, "but not to threaten papa; not to say, 'If you are unkind to Mary, our compact is broken.'"
Then she pondered awhile; then she turned to Walter, and said:
"What sort of compact is that? A compact between a father and another gentleman that a father shall not be unkind to his own daughter? Did you ever hear of such a thing?"
"Did you ever hear tell of such a thing?"
"Well, now you put it to me, I don't think I ever did."
"And yet you could run off about money. What's money! This compact is a great mystery. It's my business from this hour to fathom that mystery. Please let me think."
Mary's face now began to show great power and intensity; her eyes seemed to veil themselves, and to turn down their glances inward.
Walter was struck with the intensity of that fair brow, those remarkable eyes, and that beautiful face; they seemed now to be all strung up to concert pitch. He kept silent and looked at his wife with a certain reverence, for to tell the truth she had something of the Pythian priestess about her, when she concentrated her whole mind on any one thing in this remarkable manner. At last the oracle spoke: