She felt as if she might be paving the way for some situation in which she would find herself helpless before his sudden mood--and yet she had come.
But Lynde, meditating Aileen's delay, had this day decided that he should get a definite decision, and that it should be favorable.

He called her up at ten in the morning and chafed her concerning her indecision and changeable moods.

He wanted to know whether she would not come and see the paintings at his friend's studio--whether she could not make up her mind to come to a barn-dance which some bachelor friends of his had arranged.

When she pleaded being out of sorts he urged her to pull herself together.

"You're making things very difficult for your admirers," he suggested, sweetly.
Aileen fancied she had postponed the struggle diplomatically for some little time without ending it, when at two o'clock in the afternoon her door-bell was rung and the name of Lynde brought up.