"Have you broken the news to your father?"
He laughed. "No. I stopped at his room to see if he had pneumonia. He said he was asleep and couldn't tell--and for me to go to the devil."
From the car window they watched the great white sea through which they were gliding. Their hearts were free and their hearts were sparkling. Constantly recurring in their thoughts were the little forgotten things of that memorable voyage across the Atlantic. It was he, however, who presumed to steal surreptitious glances in which wonder was uppermost; she steadfastly declined to be led by her impulses.
"You've never heard anything particularly terrible about me, have you?" he demanded, rather anxiously, once in course of a duet of personalities.
"Only that a great many women are in love with you."
"It's funny I've never heard that," he said dolefully.
"Men say that you are an exceptionally decent chap and it's too bad you'll never amount to anything."
"I think they'll be stunned when they hear of your latest move."
"Splendid! I like to hear you speak in that way."
"You do?" he asked eagerly. "You _do_ think I'll make good, don't you?"
"What station is this?" she asked deliberately.
"Rahway," he said, leaning close to her in order to see the name on the station.
"I think I'll have a holiday on Christmas," he ventured carefully. "That's next week, you know. May I come down to Princeton for the afternoon and evening?"
"Yes," he said simply. She had expected some frivolous reply. Her gaze wavered ever so slightly as it met his.
"It will be a very dull way to spend Christmas," she said.
"Christmas is always a dull day," he said, so imploringly that she laughed. He came very near to adding, irrelevantly, that she was prettier than ever when she smiled.
"When there are no children about," he succeeded in saying, as an amend for his slip.
"There are two in our house, besides myself," she said gayly.
"Splendid!" he cried enthusiastically. "Can't we have a tree?"
On the platform at Princeton he was introduced to two small and very pretty young ladies, six and eight, and to a resentful gallant aged nine, who seemed to look upon him with disfavor. It afterwards developed that he was the characteristic neighbor boy who loves beyond his years. He adored Miss Pembroke.