"Am I now?" Caroline easily affected surprise, a laugh bubbling into her words. "Then it is a good thing I have saved him a dance after all." The lightness of Evander's tone was enough to surprise Caroline, but so too were his words. She had always wondered if he actually enjoyed such events and had often suspected that perhaps he didn't. But to hear such assumptions come to light, to realize even among light heartedness that Evander came to events simply because of her? Well it was enough to make her feel quite assured in this change of their circumstances.

All too quickly the seriousness she had come to expect of Evander stole across his face. But this time it was different, there was an earnestness in his words that made all too conscious of her own joy. His hand still held her own, and she clasped it with her other gloved hand. "I'm glad you didn't wait." She looked up at him, willing him to understand that such an action meant more to her than any social call in the parlor of the Delaney Townhouse might. The fact that he couldn't wait spoke even more of the depth of his feelings, a depth that so clearly ran as deep as her own.