“Yes, that he’ll take from YOU. Only it’s for you,” Mrs. Brook went on, “really and honestly, and as I trust you, to give it. But the comfort of you is that you’ll do so if you promise.”
Mitchy was infinitely struck. “But I haven’t promised, eh? Of course I can’t till I know what it is.”
“It’s to put before him—!”
“Oh I see: the situation.”
“What has happened here to-day. Van’s marked retreat and how, with the time that has passed, it makes us at last know where we are. You of course for yourself,” Mrs. Brook wound up, “see that.”
“Where we are?” Mitchy took a turn and came back. “But what then did Van come for? If you speak of a retreat there must have been an advance.”
“Oh,” said Mrs. Brook, “he simply wanted not to look too brutal. After so much absence he COULD come.”
“Well, if he established that he isn’t brutal, where was the retreat?”
“In his not going up to Nanda. He came—frankly—to do that, but made up his mind on second thoughts that he couldn’t risk even being civil to her.”
Mitchy had visibly warmed to his work. “Well, and what made the difference?”