"I thought my heart was breaking," the girl said, pressing both hands upon her breast. "That was all."
"Was that all?" Magnus said, with a sort of quiet rage at himself. "Had I done nothing but that? Only broken the truest heart that ever beat? Nothing more?"
"Please, please!" Cherry pleaded. "Magnus, I cannot talk to you if you say such things."
"Go on then, you, and do the talking. Didn't I tell you I had nothing more to say?"
Cherry hesitated a moment, and then she put out her hand and laid it softly on that other which had grown so brown with handling guns and pontoons. Magnus winced, as at the touch of sharp steel, but his own hand never stirred.
"What is it?" he said rather shortly.
"Magnus—does your mother know?"
"I am going to tell her."
"No, no, do not! There is no need," Cherry said earnestly.
"Not much use, perhaps," he answered in a gloomy tone. "She's bound to be my mother, through thick and thin."