"I am going to join my brother and family in India."
"But do they want you?"
"How can you be so uncomplimentary! Of course they do!"
He drew a breath.
"I was hoping, for the child's sake—for our sakes—that you would be here a little longer. What am I to do with her? Can you advise me?"
"What do you think about the Macintoshes? Mrs. Macintosh is such a nice woman. She might be inclined to take her, and later on perhaps she would be strong enough to go back to school."
"I can't afford to lose her, but I like Mrs. Macintosh, and if her son would give her an hour or two of lessons every day, it would be the very thing. What a wonderful woman you are for lightening my burdens! I will go to them on my way home and see if they would be willing to do it. I think I shall be away on and off all the summer. There will be no inducement to come down here with you gone."
He stopped and looked at her as Rowena had never seen him look before. She was conscious of the quickened beating of her heart.
Then he compressed his lips.
Rowena said lightly: