She shook her head.

“We may just as well have our talk afterwards,” she said, “and I need not keep poor Mr. Earles waiting.”

Courtlaw suddenly interposed.

“May I be allowed to say,” he declared, “that I came here with the same intention.”

“And I also,” Brendon echoed.

Anna was suddenly very quiet.

She was perhaps as near tears as ever before in her life.

“If I had three hands,” she said, with a faint smile, “I would give one to each of you. I know that you are all my friends, and I know that you all have very good advice to give me. But I am afraid I am a shockingly obstinate and a very ungrateful person. No, don’t let me call myself that. I am grateful, indeed I am. But on this matter my mind is quite made up.”

Ennison hesitated for a moment.