“I brought them for him,” she said simply.
“I think it would be wiser,” he returned, “not to make up your mind to misfortune. It is quite possible that when we arrive we shall find Mr Lawless in perfect health. There are absolutely no grounds for supposing otherwise.”
“I have a feeling that all is not well,” she answered quietly. “That feeling was with me throughout the night; and in my sleep I heard him call me... My own imagination! ... Yes, I know. He wouldn’t ask for me.”
She turned her face away and gazed out of the window again.
“Do you think,” she asked presently, after a further lengthy silence, and in her tone and manner it was apparent how great was the effort it cost her to touch upon the subject, “that she will be with him? ... that woman?”
Colonel Grey sat up suddenly as though a bomb had been flung at him. He had forgotten since his knowledge of Tottie’s identity that this thing had been an open scandal, and that she must know of it.
“Good Lord, no!” he answered. And added quickly: “There wasn’t any woman.”
He moved down to her end of the compartment, and leaning forward took both her hands and held them firmly.
“You haven’t allowed that to come between you?” he asked gently.
The tears rose in her eyes.