Eugenia crossed to the hearth rug and stood looking into Bernard's face. She made an appealing gesture with her hands.
"Bernard, it is not true," she said.
He turned away from her and, nervously lifting the poker, divided the smouldering log. A red flame shot up, illuminating the gathered faces that stood out against the dusk. The glare lent a grotesque irony to the flabby, awe-stricken features of the general, brightened the boyish ill-humour in Bernard's eyes, and played peaceably over Miss Chris's tranquil countenance.
"Bernard, it is not true," she said again.
The poker fell with a clatter to the hearth; and the noise irritated her. Bernard put out a sudden, soothing hand.
"It is what they say in Kingsborough," he answered.
She turned from him to the window, pushed the curtains aside, and went out again into the sunset.
VI
She ran swiftly along the walk, into the gloom of the avenue, and out again to the open road. The sunset colours were flaming in the west, and above them a solitary star was shining. The fields lay sombre and deserted on either side, but straight ahead, in the lighter streak of the road, she saw Nicholas's figure swinging onward. She might have called to him, but she did not; she sped like a shadow in his path until, hearing her footfalls in the dust, he looked back and halted.