"Maybe girls are given to talking in that riddlesome kind of way," thought Jerome.
He was blissfully certain upon one point, at all events.

Lucina's whole manner had given evidence to a confidence and understanding upon her part.
"She knows what I am doing," he told himself.

"She knows how I am working, and she is contented and willing to wait.

She knows, but she isn't bound." Jerome had not dreamed that Lucina's indisposition had had aught to do with distress of mind upon his account.
Now he fell upon work as if it had been a veritable dragon of old, which he must slay to rescue his princess.

He toiled from earliest dawn until far dark, and not with hands only.