"Will you please come this way, Mrs. Burke? Mr. Eustace is waiting to see you," Harding called out from the bank entrance.
"I'll go," she said to Brennan. "But mind! I rely on you—thank God your father and mother were Irish even if you were born out here."
"Mr. Eustace asks if you will mind going into the dining-room," Harding said.
She shot a resentful glance at him as she swept by and passed through into the house. Eustace met her and led her into the dining-room, closing the door after him. As Harding shut the door leading from the bank, Johnson, the postmaster, came in.
"Here is a message just come through—I brought it down at once as I thought you'd be anxious," he said.
"Half a minute," Harding said, as he took the telegram. "Eustace is seeing Mrs. Burke in the house. I'll take it to him in case there is a reply."
He went through to the dining-room, knocked at the door and opened it. Mrs. Burke, her eyes flashing and her cheeks flushed, was standing facing Eustace, who sat by the table with his head resting on his hand.
"Here's a telegram—Johnson is waiting to see if there is any reply," Harding said, as he held out the message.
Eustace took the telegram mechanically, opened and read it and handed it, open, to Harding.
"Read it," he said. "There's no answer. I'll join you presently."