'No, perhaps not. But in the meantime, what is to become of me? Will Mrs. Wylie take me in for a day or two, or shall we seek lodgings? I have some money, enough to last a month or so; but I must have two new dresses.'
'Mrs. Wylie has kindly said that you can stay as long as you like. But, Alice, it would never do to stay in London. You must get away to some small place on the sea-coast, or somewhere where you will not be utterly bored, and keep in hiding until he comes home, and I can find out what he intends to do.'
'My dear, I shall be utterly bored anywhere except in London. But Brenda, tell me ... you have got into a habit of talking exactly like Theo Trist!'
Brenda met her sister's eyes with a bright smile.
'How funny!' she exclaimed. 'I have not noticed it.'
'No, of course; you—would not notice it. When will he be home?'
The girl stopped and looked critically at an advertisement suspended on the wall near at hand. It was a huge representation of a coloured gentleman upon his native shore, making merry over a complicated pair of braces. She had never seen the work of art before, and for some unknown reason in the months—ay, and in the years that followed—her dislike for it was almost nauseating in its intensity.
'I don't know,' she replied indifferently.
'We,' continued Mrs. Huston, following out her own train of thought, 'are so helpless. We want a man to stand by us. Of course papa is of no use. I suppose he is spouting somewhere about the country. He generally is.'
'No,' replied Brenda, with a wonderful tolerance. 'We cannot count on him. He is in Ireland. I had a postcard from him the other day. He said that I was not to be surprised or shocked to hear that he was in prison. He is trying to get himself arrested. It is, he says, all part of the campaign.'