"That is the thing. You
see, I want you back at the hop."
"I would like to come," said I; "but I must not."
"On the ground —?"
"I told you, Mr. Thorold. I do not find that my orders allow
me to go there. I must do nothing that I cannot do in my
King's name."
"That is —"
"As His servant — on His errands — following where He leads
me."
"I never heard it put so before," said Thorold. "It bears the
stamp of perfection — only an impossible perfection."
"No —" said I.
"To ordinary mortals," he rejoined, with one of his quick
brilliant flashes of the eye. Then as it softened and changed
again, —
"Miss Randolph, permit me to ask a not irrelevant question —
Are you happy?"
And with the inquiry came the investigating look, keen as a
razor or a rifle ball. I could meet it though; and I told him,
it was _this_ made me happy. For the first time his face was
troubled. He turned it from me and dropped the conversation. I
let it drop too; and we walked side by side and silently the
remainder of the steep way; neither of us, I believe, paying
much attention to what there was to be seen below or around
us.
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