"Assuredly."
The examination and its concomitant sorrows were forgotten. She answered the question as she would have answered it at any time in the last three or four years.
"Are you much interested in the work?"
"Very much," she said warmly.
"I am sure you need scarcely ask that," said Lady Munro, with a kind smile. "One does not undertake that sort of thing pour s'amuser!"
"There are other motives," he said, looking severely at his wife. "There is ambition." This was shrewdly said, and Mona's respect for her opponent rose. A fit of coughing had interrupted him.
His wife looked at him anxiously. "I wish you would prescribe for my husband," she said, smiling.
"Don't!" ejaculated Sir Douglas fiercely, before the cough gave him breath to speak.
At this moment Nubboo announced a visitor, a cousin of Sir Douglas', and the latter seemed glad of an interruption which allowed him to have Mona entirely to himself.
He shook hands with the new-comer, and then, returning to Mona's side, sat in silence for a few moments as if trying to collect his thoughts.