His heart was beating like an excited boy's.

He could hear her footsteps over his head, and he distinguished her soft laughter, and her sweet voice when she spoke.
There was something tantalizing in her nearness and the fact that she did not once show herself at the top of the stair.

Blackton was still talking about "coyotes" and dynamite when, an hour later, Aldous looked up, and his heart gave a big, glad jump.
Peggy Blackton, a plump little golden-haired vision of happiness, was already half a dozen steps down the stairs.

At the top Joanne, for an instant, had paused.

Through that space, before the contractor had turned, her eyes met those of John Aldous.