‘Yes,’ she says to herself, when the doctor is gone, ‘we shall be alone there, I and my Charlie, and it will seem like the dear old honeymoon time, before we came to live amongst these horrid flirting cats of women, and perhaps some of the old memories will come back to him and we shall be happy, foolish lovers again as we used to be long ago before I was so miserable.’
But when Colonel Dunstan hears of the proposed visit to the Mandalinati hills, he does not seem to approve of it half so much as he did of the voyage to England.
‘I am not at all sure if the climate will suit you or the child,’ he says, ‘it is sometimes very raw and misty up on those hills. And then it is very wild and lonely. I know the castle MacQuirk means—a great straggling building standing quite by itself, and in a most exposed position. I really think you will be much wiser to go to England, Ethel.’
‘Oh, Charlie! how unkind of you, and when you know the separation will kill me!’
‘It would be harder, just at first, but I should feel our trouble would be repaid. But I shall always be in a fidget about you at Mandalinati.’
‘But, Charlie, what harm can happen when you are with us?’
‘My dear girl, I can’t go with you to the castle.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because business will detain me here. How do you suppose I can leave the regiment?’
‘But you will come up very often to see us—every week at least; won’t you, Charlie?’