"What's the good of talking when no one can?" said Eustace gruffly. "I can't think why you do. You only make yourself cry."
The first person to speak of Miss Chase without tears was Peter. He was lying in their private sitting-room, and suddenly he said,—
"I say, where's Aunt Dorothy?"
He had asked before, but in his weakness the subject had easily been changed.
"She is not here, dear," said Mrs. Orban.
"That's funny," said Peter, in his old talkative way; "she distinctly said she was coming."
Bob got up from a deep chair and stood, with his back to the room, looking out of the window.
"Did she, Peter?" said Mr. Orban quickly. "When?"
"Why, on the boat," said Peter; "when she put the life-belt round me."
"Oh, she put the life-belt round you, did she?" said Mr. Orban. "And what did she say?"