She wondered if he would pause at the table where a tray of refreshments was standing.

He did not, and her nerves tingled and quivered as he passed it by.
He joined her at the window, and they stood together for several seconds looking out upon the great river with its myriad lights.
She had not the faintest idea as to what was passing in his mind, but her heart-beats quickened in his silence to such a tumult that at last she could bear it no longer.

She turned back into the room.
He followed her instantly, and she fancied that he sighed.
"Won't you have anything before you go ?" he said.
She shook her head.
"Good-night!" she said almost inaudibly.
For a moment--no longer--her hand lay in his.

She did not look at him.
There was something in his touch that thrilled through her like an electric current.
But his grave "Good-night!" had in it nothing startling, and by the time she reached her own room she had begun to ask herself what cause there had been for her agitation.

She was sure he must have thought her very strange, very abrupt, even ungracious.
And at that her heart smote her, for he had been kinder that evening than ever before.