"As it is--yes--I want you as a friend." She held out her hand.

For a moment he felt its warmth again in his own.
He bowed over it.

Her eyes rested steadily on his blond head, and again she noted the sprinkle of premature gray in his hair.

For a second time she felt almost overwhelmingly the mysterious strength of this man.

Perhaps each took three breaths before John Aldous raised his head.