"Did my cards reach you?" said the remembered voice, without preface.
"They just went up, I believe. But I see you mean to go out."

He looked a little pale under the lobby's brilliant lights, but never
had he seemed so handsome and impressive. Carlisle looked up and looked
down, and the sight of him there was an exaltation and heavenly
fulfilment and a garland upon her brow.

"We must have passed them as we came down," said she. "How do you do? I
had no idea you were in this part of the world."

He said that he was just off the train. She presented him to Mrs.
Willing, who hardly repressed a start as she heard and identified
his name.

"Will you come with us for a little drive?" said Carlisle. "We were
just starting out to take the air. Or ..."

Florrie Willing looked intensely eager. Canning hesitated. The feminine
intuitions, of which we have heard so much, naturally divined the cause
of his hesitation, and Florrie rushed into the breach.

"You're excused from our engagement, Cally!" said she, with archness,
and some nobility, too. "I know Mr. Canning doesn't care to parade the
Avenue in our last year's model. You shall have the city to yourselves.
Why not go up to the apartment?"

Carlisle glanced at Canning, who said: "You are very nice and kind, Mrs.
Willing." Mrs. Willing looked at him as much as to say, "I can be five