“Just so. Don't tell lies, Harriet. You've been freezing a long while.”
She drew her cloak closer over the thin white linen of her gown with shaking hand.
“I don't understand. I'm very cold. Why didn't you come before? It has been so long waiting.”
III.
The draft began to roar and the dampers to glow. She crept in front of the glow. He drew a chair and sat down close behind her.
“Why didn't you come before?”
The question was startling, for Sebastian was only conscious of a lack of reason for coming. If David Sebastian had left him the farm he would have heard from it, and being prosperous, he had not cared. But the question seemed to imply some strong assumption and further knowledge.
“You'd better tell me about it.”
“About what? At the beginning?”
“Aren't you anything except 'Received, Harriet'?”