“No, of course you’re right. I can light the fire for her in the afternoon and put the kettle on. It isn’t much to be alive for, but he’d say it was worth while. He’d say, ‘What would she do without a G in the alphabet?’ wouldn’t he? I must remember. And now you must go to her. It’s worse for her than me, only that she’s still got all her life before her, and she’s very attractive, while I never seemed to please any one in my life but him.”
“Yes; I must go now,” Hal said; “but I’ll come and see you again. Come down east with me next Wednesdayn evening, to a social evening in the slums, will you? They’re so interesting. We’ll have tea together first. I’ll arrange to take you, and then you’ll meet Dick.”
“Good-bye for the present.”
Then she crossed the landing, wondering with a sinking heart how she could ever hope to comfort Ethel.
CHAPTER XL
It was not until a spell of exhaustingly hot weather set in in early July that Hal saw a still more noticeable frailty in Lorraine.
She was quite unable to act, and spent a great deal of time on her sofa near the window, where she could just distinguish the river through the trees. It seemed to have a growing fascination for her.
“I’ve always thought,” she told Hal one day, “how I’d like to go away from the fret and worry of London, smoothly down the river to a haven of sunshine and sea.”
“Why don’t you go, Lorry. Why not go at once, before you get any weaker?”
“I think I must. This sultry heat is too much for me, and I’m very tired of London and everything belonging to it. I should like to have gone to my old haven on the Italian Riviera, but it would be too hot.”