In the space of ten steps King passed through an age of emotions, but the strongest one steadied him.  There was a general movement, exclamations, greetings, introductions.  King was detained a moment by Mr. and Mrs. Benson; he even shook hands with Mr. Meigs, who had the tact to turn immediately from the group and talk with somebody else; while Mrs. Farquhar and Miss Lamont and Mrs. Cortlandt precipitated themselves upon Irene in a little tempest of cries and caresses and delightful feminine fluttering.  Truth to say, Irene was so overcome by these greetings that she had not the strength to take a step forward when King at length approached her.  She stood with one hand grasping the back of the chair.  She knew that that moment would decide her life.  Nothing is more admirable in woman, nothing so shows her strength, as her ability to face in public such a moment.  It was the critical moment for King—­how critical the instant was, luckily, he did not then know.  If there had been in his eyes any doubt, any wavering, any timidity, his cause would have been lost.  But there was not.  There was infinite love and tenderness, but there was also resolution, confidence, possession, mastery.  There was that that would neither be denied nor turned aside, nor accept any subterfuge.  If King had ridden up on a fiery steed, felled Meigs with his “mailed hand,” and borne away the fainting girl on his saddle pommel, there could have been no more doubt of his resolute intention.  In that look all the mists of doubt that her judgment had raised in Irene’s mind to obscure love vanished.  Her heart within her gave a great leap of exultation that her lover was a man strong enough to compel, strong enough to defend.  At that instant she knew that she could trust him against the world.  In that moment, while he still held her hand, she experienced the greatest joy that woman ever knows—­the bliss of absolute surrender.

“I have come,” he said, “in answer to your letter.  And this is my answer.”

She had it in his presence, and read it in his eyes.  With the delicious sense thrilling her that she was no longer her own master there came a new timidity.  She had imagined that if ever she should meet Mr. King again, she should defend her course, and perhaps appear in his eyes in a very heroic attitude.  Now she only said, falteringly, and looking down, “I—­I hoped you would come.”

That evening there was a little dinner given in a private parlor by Mr. Benson in honor of the engagement of his daughter.  It was great larks for the young ladies whom Mrs. Cortlandt was chaperoning, who behaved with an elaboration of restraint and propriety that kept Irene in a flutter of uneasiness.  Mr. Benson, in mentioning the reason for the “little spread,” told the story of Abraham Lincoln’s sole response to Lord Lyons, the bachelor minister of her majesty, when he came officially to announce the marriage of the Prince of Wales—­“Lord Lyons, go thou and do likewise;” and he looked at Forbes