"Can't Lance wait?"
"No; I have to help with his lessons."
Dead silence for a moment.
"Is anything wrong?" Nigel asked.
Ethel lifted her eyes, giving him a calm return glance. She would not for the world have betrayed herself. "I ought to go to Lance."
"And that is all?"
Ethel could not answer in the affirmative. Silence was her response.
"Good-night," Nigel said seriously, holding out his left hand. "No, I think I will not come in this evening. There isn't really much time—only, if I could have seen a little of you—But some other day must do instead. I suppose I may tell Daisy that you do not mind very much."
"About the postscript? Oh no!"
Then Nigel was gone, and Ethel still leant against the wall, with downcast eyes, feeling as if all the sunshine of her life had gone with him.