Valerie looked at Dane’s head bent forward while his pen raced to finish Monday’s leader. Her fingers ached to play with that seductive hair. The more or less chaste good-night kiss they allowed themselves was fast becoming a very miserable dole to hand out to each other from the splendours of love they felt within them. But Dane had kept more steadily in mind even than she had the hard cold fact that she had to be at the office at eight every morning. And perhaps in the final reckoning of accounts the little thoughtfulnesses will be weighed against the big sins and found to have astonishing tonnage.
But he had come to feel that they were missing their legitimate share of the spring, and, determined that he would get her away from the office for a while at the end of the week, he had given her more help, so that this night they were so well ahead that there was nothing but ordinary routine for the Saturday morning. Then, too, her other anxiety, Bob, was now, in spite of one bad relapse, safely on the road to recovery and would, in another week’s time, be well enough to go home for a final rest before coming back to the drive of the last three weeks.
As he read over his leader Dane felt her insistent scrutiny of him and swung round on his chair. After looking at her he caught her hands.
“Look here, I can’t be noble much longer, can you?”
“No I can’t,” she chuckled delightedly.
He looked at his watch. “It’s only ten. Come out on the river for a while.”
“Oh, glorious, I’ve been wanting that for days.”
“You haven’t wanted it any more than I have,” he said softly.
He took the copy into the composing-room, turned out the lights, and hatless they stood in front of the outer door listening. Then seeing there was no one about she
