Hugh’s reply was bitter; oh, she was sure it was bitter.
“Oh, do you think it makes much difference to a toothache if you remember that Sirius is billions and billions of miles away?” he asked.
Mrs. Owen nearly laid the touch of a fairy hand on his arm. She probably would quite have done so if it was not holding up her dress.
“Poor Mr. Hugh!” she said softly.
Hugh was rather touched; he did not like his companion, but there was something genuine in the simplicity of this.
“Thanks,” he said.
They had come to Mrs. Owen’s gate by this time, and she stopped a moment.
“If I can do anything, you will tell me, will you not?” she said. “And if people ask me why you have come back alone, what shall I say?”
“Why, that I have come back for a few weeks to see my friends,” he said.
“Yes, I see—yes. Good-night!”