Again Mrs. Huston's pretty laughter made things pleasant and sociable.
'I wonder what that means,' she exclaimed, smoothing a wrinkle out of the front of her jacket for the benefit of a military-looking man, with a cigar in his mouth, who stared offensively as he passed.
Brenda shrugged her shoulders slightly, and said nothing. She did not appear to attach a very great importance to her father's political movements, in which culpable neglect she was abetted by the whole of England.
'What we require,' continued Mrs. Huston, 'is an energetic man with brains.'
'I am afraid that energetic men with brains have in most cases their own affairs to look after. It is only the idle ones with tongues who have time to devote to other people's business.'
'The "brute," my dear, is clever; we must remember that. And he is terribly obstinate. There is a sort of stubborn bloodhoundism about him which makes me shiver when I think that he is even now after me, in all probability.'
'We must be cool and cunning, and brave to fight against him,' said Brenda practically.
At this moment the guard came forward, and held the door of their compartment invitingly open. They got in, and found themselves alone. They were barely seated, opposite to each other, when the train glided smoothly away.
Brenda sat a little forward, with her gloved hand resting on the window, which had been lowered by the guard. They were seated on the landward side of the train, and as she looked out her eyes rested on the rising hills to the north with a vague, unseeing gaze.
A slight movement made by Mrs. Huston caused her at length to look across, and the two sisters sat for a second searching each other's eyes for the old heartwhole frankness which never seems to survive the death of childhood and the birth of separate interests in life.