She did not like this. The great scheme! Her special mission! It necessitated.... Here was the necessity at which she had checked but confidently ridden on, and Harry was pulled right up by it. His astonishment was not comfortable to her. Was there to be a check then? He said again, “You? A year? But, Rosalie, what on earth—”
She pronounced a single word, his own word:
“Business.”
He was standing before her on the hearthrug. He made a turn and at once turned back. “Are you thinking of this seriously?”
“Most seriously.”
“Of going?”
“Of going. It’s business.”
“For a year?”
“Harry, yes.”
He began to fill his pipe with very slow movements of his fingers, his eyes bent down upon her. “And you called this—just now—a small thing?”