"You are a long time, Mr. Ducaine. I am waiting for you to give me a lesson at billiards."
I crossed the hall to her side.
"I thought that as Lord Blenavon had gone out—"
She shrugged her shoulders.
"That you would evade your duty, which is clearly to stay and entertain your hostess."
She closed the door and glanced at me curiously.
"What has happened to you?" she asked. "You look as though you had been with ghosts."
"Is it so impossible?" I asked, moving a little nearer to the huge log fire. "What company is more terrifying than the company of our dead thoughts and dead hopes and dead memories?"
"Really, I am afraid that Blenavon must have been a very depressing companion!" she said, leaning her elbow upon the broad mantelpiece.
It was absurd! I tried to shake myself free from the miseries of the last hour.