The passage became rough below Columbia Avenue, where the asphalt
gives away to Belgian block paving. Haslam's athletic training and the
acquaintance of both with the bicycle served to minimize this disadvantage.
The frequent stoppages of the 'bus made it less difficult for them to keep
in close sight of it. Conversation was not easy between them. Both kept
silence, therefore, their eyes fixed upon the 'bus ahead, and carefully
watching its every stop.
"You're sure he hasn't gotten off yet?" she asked, at Girard Avenue.
"Certain."
"He's probably going to his rooms down-town."
"Or to his club."
So they pressed southward. Before them stretched the lone vista of electric
lights away down Broad Street to the City Hall invisible in the night.
The difficulty of talking made thinking more involuntary. Haslam's mind
turned back three years. Was it, as he had dared sometimes to fancy, a
juvenile capriciousness that had impelled this girl in front of him to
reject him when she was seventeen, after having manifested an unmistakable
tenderness for him? And now that she was twenty, and had in the meantime
rejected several others, and broken one engagement, was it too late to
attempt to revive the old spark?
His meditations were suddenly interrupted by an exclamation from the girl
herself.
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