"Very much, 'perhaps.' It would be better luck than I could expect."
"And you really could have the heart to leave us all, and go off to the other side of the globe? Oh, I can't bear to think of it!"
"Don't speak so kindly! You will take away all my courage," he said, looking for a moment at the beautiful eyes fixed on his face.
"Ah, I am very selfish. Of course you ought to go, if going will lead to a career for you. Although one can't help feeling that you will be, somehow wasted in mere commercial pursuits. Yes, yes, of course, I am wrong!" she added, hastily anticipating his rejoinder. "It is all very proper and Spartan, no doubt. But I am not in the least Spartan, you know."
"People usually find it easy to be Spartan for their friends. Very few keep their stoicism for themselves, and their soft-heartedness for others—as you do!"
He glanced involuntarily at Martin Bransby, as he spoke; and she followed his glance with instant quickness of understanding.
"How do you think he is looking? You do not think he seems worse, do you?" she said.
"No, indeed, no!"
"I was afraid, when you talked about stoicism——"
"No, I only meant that you always show great courage when Mr. Bransby is ill."