Mrs. Huston laughed somewhat forcedly, and drew in her feet.
'It is like this,' she explained. 'If my husband catches me I think I shall probably kill myself! Theo is so strong and reliable, and somehow ... so capable, that I naturally thought of him in my emergency.'
'Naturally,' echoed Mrs. Wylie mechanically.
At that moment she was not thinking whether her monosyllabic remark was cruelly sarcastic or simply silly. Her whole mind was devoted to the study of Brenda's face, upon which the firelight glowed; but in the proud young features there was nothing legible—nothing beyond a somewhat anxious thoughtfulness.
'I think,' continued Mrs. Huston, 'that we may count on a week's start. My affectionate husband cannot be here before then.'
To this neither lady made reply. The servant came in, and in a few moments tea was served. Brenda presided over the little basket table, and prepared each cup with a foreknowledge of the several tastes. During this there was no word spoken. From the nonchalance of the ladies' manner one might easily have imagined that the younger couple had just come in from a long day's shopping.
'Have you,' asked the widow at length, as she stirred her tea placidly, 'thought of what you are doing?'
'Oh yes!' was the laughing rejoinder, in which, however, there was no mirth. 'Oh yes! I have thought, and thought, and thought, until the subject was thrashed out dry. There was nothing else to do but think, and read yellow-backed novels, all the voyage home.'
'Then,' murmured the widow, with gentle interrogation, 'this Captain Parminter did not come home with you?'
Mrs. Huston changed colour, and her lips moved slightly. She glanced towards Mrs. Wylie beneath her dark lashes, and answered with infinite self-possession: