nearly eight o'clock before
It did n't often happen that any one was as entirely to blame for a calamity to some one else as Mary was for this _ volte-face _ of Paula 's . She did not run away altogether . Paula , indeed , did n't know that she had fled at all , for Maxfield Ware 's tardiness about coming back the second time supplied her with a pretext . It was nearly eight o'clock before he came and Paula , who was momentarily expecting John 's arrival by then , was in an agony of impatience to sign his papers and get him out of the house again . Ware may have divined her wish and loitered out of mischievous curiosity as to the cause of it . Or he may , merely , have been prolonging an experience which he found agreeable . Anyhow , he would n't be hurried and he would n't go .