She pressed her lips and looked at him with a grave face. He too became grave, and in a changed way.
‘I am not to take this seriously?’ he asked with bated breath.
‘You are. There’s not one scrap of hope, and it’s better you should know it.’
‘Then—there—there must be somebody else?’ he groaned, his distress no longer humorous.
Alice continued to look him in the face for a moment, and at length nodded twice.
‘There is somebody else?’
She nodded three times.
‘Then I’ll go. Good-bye, Miss Mutimer. Yes, I’ll go.’
He did not offer to shake hands, but bowed and moved away dejectedly.
‘But you’re not going back to London?’ Alice asked.