“Mother doesn’t say, but I have been looking up the trains and there is one getting in just before lunch. The next good one is not till after four and I should think she will travel early to avoid the worst of the heat. Anyhow we can’t go and meet her.”
Annie crossed the lawn to us, salver in hand, “A telegram for you, Miss Ethel.”
“Arriving 1.10. Merchester. J. K.” she read, then looking up at Annie, “Tell cook that Mrs. Kenley will be here in time for lunch.”
Annie departed.
“What are you going to do about telling her the state of affairs, Ethel? Are you going to tell her?”
“Yes, I must, oh, surely I must. I shall wait until the afternoon though, I think, it might look as though I wanted to drive her away if I told her at once. But how I am going—oh, how I hate it all.”
Poor Ethel was on the verge of another breakdown, I could see by the way she leaned back in her chair and turned her face away. I had wanted to ask her if she too had heard some one laughing in the waiting-room, before she came into the dispensary on the Monday morning, when she came down from the club to get some tape for the handle of her racquet; and to question her regarding that intriguing conversation of hers with The Tundish, which had come to my ears so clearly across the courts as I sat in the umpire’s chair. I came to the conclusion, however, that she had enough to bear, and if she had answered me, I had by this time argued myself into such a condition of disbelief, that any reply she might have made would only have given rise to additional skepticism and doubt.
And so the unemployed and interminable morning wore on. I dozed in my chair and pretended to write. Ethel hardly stirred in her chair at my side. The two boys played Badminton, but after a time their voices ceased, and I concluded that they were too overcome by the heat to continue their game.
Margaret flitted past us several times, but she never once stayed to prattle in her usual way; she seemed preoccupied and worried.
Shortly before one o’clock The Tundish returned from his rounds. He joined us in the garden immediately and took a seat beside us. Ethel handed him the telegram she had received, without comment.