With a glance round the room to see that her stage was prepared, she reseated herself.
Again the door opened, and this time the new arrival did not hurry into the room, but stood upon the threshold waiting. Mrs. Wylie looked up with a pleasant expectancy. It was Captain Huston.
The soldier glanced round the room uneasily, and then he advanced towards the fire without attempting any sort of greeting. Mrs. Wylie remained in her deep chair, and as the Captain came towards her, she watched him. His unsteady hands gave his hat no rest. Taking his stand on the hearthrug, he began at once in a husky voice.
'I have come to you, Mrs. Wylie,' he said, 'because I suspect that you know where Alice is to be found. This game of hide-and-seek to which she is treating me is hardly dignified, and it is distinctly senseless. If I choose to take decided steps in the matter, I can, of course, have her hunted down like a common malefactor.'
He spread his gaitered feet apart, and waited with confidence the result of this shot.
'In the meantime,' suggested Mrs. Wylie, with unruffled sweetness, 'it is really, perhaps, wiser that you should remain apart. I sincerely trust that this is a mere temporary misunderstanding. You are both young, and, I suppose, both hasty. Think over it, Captain Huston, and do not press matters too much. If, in a short time, you approach Alice with a few kind little apologies, I believe she would relent. You must really be less hard on us women—make some allowance for our more tender nerves and silly susceptibilities.'
By way of reply, he laughed in a rasping way, without, however, being actually rude.
'I have an indistinct recollection of having heard that before,' he observed, with forced cynicism, 'or something of a similar nature. The kind little apologies you mention are due to me as much as they are to Alice. Of course, she has omitted to draw your attention to sundry little flirtations...'
The widow stopped him with a quick gesture of disgust.
'I refuse,' she said deliberately, 'to listen to details. Alice will tell you that I treated her in the same way. These matters, Captain Huston, should be sacred between husband and wife.'