"You!"
"He says he hasn't a friend."
"But what about his wife?"
"That's just what I said.... He's left her. Says he can't live with her."
There was a silence, in which the tension appreciably lessened.
"Can't live with her! Well, I'm not surprised. But I do think it's strange, him coming to you."
"So do I," said Edwin drily, taking the upper hand; for the change in Hilda's tone--her almost childlike satisfaction in the news that Cannon would not live with his wife--seemed to endow him with superiority. "But there's a lot of strange things in this world. Now listen here. I'm not going to keep him waiting; I can't."
He then spoke very gravely, authoritatively and ominously: "Find George and take him home at once."
Hilda, impressed, gave a frown.
"I think it's very wrong that you should be asked to help him." Her voice shook and nearly broke. "Shall you help him, Edwin?"