"Steinberg goes on to say," Jasper continued, "that he had heard that the cricket pitch—the playground he calls it—was like a swamp. The storm seems to have been very severe the other side of the frontier. It went on for twenty-four hours without a break, and was still raging at the time of writing. Unless the weather improves very much, Steinberg says that the match will have to be abandoned altogether, as Payson and several of his team have to be back in Budapest in time for work on Monday morning, which means leaving Hódmezö on the Sunday."
Then, as Rosemary made no comment on the news, only stared rather dejectedly out of the window, Jasper went on after a while:
"I am afraid it will mean a disappointment all round, as the weather can hardly be said to have improved, can it?"
Rosemary said: "No, it cannot," after which the subject was dropped. Somehow the idea of the postponed cricket match worried her, and there was one insistent thought which would force itself into the forefront of her mind to the exclusion of all others, and that was the thought that the postponed cricket match would have left Peter free yesterday to come over to Kis-Imre, and that therefore it might have been himself in the flesh who was standing during the storm in the garden last night.
Why he should have chosen to stand in the garden in the rain rather than come into his aunt's house was a problem which Rosemary felt herself too wearied and disheartened to tackle.
When she went downstairs soon after ten o'clock she met Elza in the hall, dressed ready to go out. She looked more tired, more aged, more ill than the day before; obviously she had spent another sleepless night. But she kissed Rosemary very tenderly. "Come into the smoking-room, darling," she said. "I want to say something to you."
Rosemary followed her into the smoking-room and at once asked after Maurus.
"He has had no sleep," Elza said, "and at times his brain wanders. But physically he seems no worse—rather stronger, I think, than yesterday, and he enjoyed his breakfast. If we could only keep him quiet!"
She opened her handbag and took out the papers which Rosemary gave her yesterday.
"I read your articles through very carefully, dear," she said, "but I did not have to pray for guidance. I knew at once that none of us, not Maurus or I, or Anna's people, would accept the children's safety at such a price. The children themselves would refuse."