"Then it was the nurse's fault?"
"It was an accident. They could not afford a second nurse and Mrs. Meek was physically unfit to do her share."
"I shall tell Honor."
"Please do not do so. I prefer to let the matter stand. It will be quite for the best," and with that he was gone.
However, Joyce took the first opportunity of repeating the conversation to her friend. "So you see, dear," she concluded as they talked together at the Club the following afternoon, "he was not at all to blame."
"Perhaps not, but it makes no difference. I am deeply disappointed in him. It was his duty to have gone, and a man who is capable of neglecting a duty for pleasure falls short of the standard I cherish," returned Honor coldly.
"I did not know you could be so hard!" said Joyce reproachfully.
"I am not hard. It is absolutely nothing to me and Captain Dalton cares very little what I think."
Joyce wondered if that were so, for she remembered his abstraction; his mention of Honor had been a bolt from the blue.
"I do not understand why he said 'it would be quite for the best,'" Joyce speculated.