Meanwhile, Mrs Adair asked wonderingly:
“Are you sure you are right, dear! Nothing was said about it the evening of the dance.”
“I had it from Lawrence himself half an hour ago. I asked him if he would aid me in getting something done to the drainage in Omeath, and he said he would give me a subscription, but he was going away himself for some time. He then told me he was going to India in three weeks.”
Eileen looked up. A sudden thought had come to her.
“It must have been decided in a great hurry?” she said a little questioningly, and hung on the General’s reply.
“No,” came only too promptly. “It was all arranged before he came back to Omeath. I don’t know why he did not mention it sooner, but he is never one to talk of his arrangements. If I had only known, I would have hurried on this scheme of sanitation, for I want his personal support as well as his money. It is very tiresome. Bless the man! he’s like a wandering organ-grinder.”
There was a pause, and presently Eileen rose and left the room. Her mother’s eyes followed her with a look of suffering, but Paddy bit her teeth together and said under her breath: “I’ll kill him yet.”
Half an hour later they all sat down to lunch, and Eileen joined them with just her usual calm manner; only the shadows under her eyes had deepened, and she seemed to avoid every one’s glance.
After lunch she and Paddy were alone for a few minutes, and Paddy asked with seeming carelessness:
“Didn’t Lawrence tell you he was going to India, shortly?”