It was for Margaret also a happy evening, but not a calm one, and not gay.  She was swept away by a flood of emotions.  She wanted to be alone, to think it over, every item of the short visit, every look, every tone.  Was it all true?  The great change made her tremble:  of the future she dared scarcely think.  She was restless, but not restless as before; she could not be calm in such a great happiness.  And then the wonder of it, that he should choose her of all others—­he who knew the world so well, and must have known so many women.  She followed him on his journey, thinking what he was doing now, and now, and now.  She would have given the world to see him just for a moment, to look in his eyes and be sure again, to have him say that little word once more:  there was a kind of pain in her heart, the separation was so cruel; it had been over two hours now.  More than once in the evening she ran down to the sitting-room, where her aunt was pretending to be absorbed in a book, to kiss her, to pet her, to smooth her grayish hair and pat her cheek, and get her to talk about her girlhood days.  She was so happy that tears were in her eyes half the time.  At nine o’clock there was a pull at the bell that threatened to drag the wire out, and an insignificant little urchin appeared with a telegram, which frightened Miss Forsythe, and seemed to Margaret to drop out of heaven.  Such an absurd thing to do at night, said the aunt, and then she kissed Margaret, and laughed a little, and declared that things had come to a queer pass when people made love by telegraph.  There wasn’t any love in the telegram, Margaret said; but she knew better—­the sending word of his arrival was a marvelous exhibition of thoughtfulness and constancy.

And then she led her aunt on to talk of Mr. Henderson, to give her impression, how he looked, what she really thought of him, and so on, and so on.

There was not much to say, but it could be said over and over again in various ways.  It was the one night of the world, and her overwrought feeling sought relief.  It would not be so again.  She would be more reticent and more coquettish about her lover, but now it was all so new and strange.

That night when the girl went to sleep the telegram was under her pillow, and it seemed to throb with a thousand messages, as if it felt the pulsation of the current that sent it.

The prospective marriage of the budding millionaire Rodney Henderson was a society paper item in less than a week—­the modern method of publishing the banns.  This was accompanied by a patronizing reference to the pretty school-ma’am, who was complimented upon her good-fortune in phrases so neatly turned as to give Henderson the greatest offense, and leave him no remedy, since nothing could have better suited the journal than further notoriety.  He could not remember that he had spoken of it to any one except the Eschelles, to whom his relations made the communication a necessity, and he suspected Carmen, without, however, guessing that she was a habitual purveyor of the town gossiper.