At last she said, "Was it quite fair to accept Inga's word against me all those weeks ago?"
"Perhaps not, but what she said hurt like the deuce and I decided to sit back for a while—an onlooker. Then you began to look weary and depressed—it was round about the time young Strasmore started paying attentions to Miss Lawson—and I connected the two."
"Mark, how could you!"
"I know it looks crazy now, and I could shoot myself when I think of what I went through over it." Emotion roughened his voice. "You took such pains to deceive me and loving you made me ridiculously sensitive. Your caring for Strasmore seemed very plausible and both you and Elizabeth were obstructionist where I was concerned."
"We couldn't divine what was in your mind."
He laughed briefly, a trifle harshly. "Hanim did. He scarcely let a day pass without alluding to the `bwana's little sister'."
Tremulously, she smiled up at him. "What will he think of us now?" Mark smiled fondly and bent to kiss her again.
"We must plan a house," he said. "There's a piece of land beyond Limuru—just far enough from town. We'll settle, Karen, in the way you've always longed for, and if business should take me away for a spell—"
"I'll go with you," she said swiftly, "wherever it may be."
"Yes, you'll go with me," he pronounced decisively.
THE END
Fair Horizon Page 15