She stood as if turned to stone. She had often seen Ronnie curiously
excited, even incoherently so, before that night, but she had never seen
him like this. She had never imagined before for a single instant what
now she abruptly knew without the shadow of a doubt.
A feeling that was like physical sickness came over her. She looked from
Ronnie to Ronnie's major with a sort of piteous appeal. Baring turned
gravely towards her.
"You will let me have a word alone with your brother?" he said quietly.
"I was waiting to see him, as you know."
She felt that he had given her a definite command, and she obeyed it
mutely, almost mechanically. He opened the door for her, and she went
out in utter silence, sick at heart.
V
MORE THAN A FRIEND
Two days later Hope received an invitation from Mrs. Latimer to join her
at the Hill Station for a few weeks.
She hesitated, for her brother's sake, to accept it, but he, urged
thereto by some very plain speaking from his major, persuaded her so
strongly that she finally yielded.
Though she would not have owned it, Hope was, in fact, in sore need of
this change. The heat had told upon her nerves and spirits.
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