My note was duly sent to the brigadier, and five minutes afterwards I went out on to the verandah to speak to him. I managed to keep him out of the room by a promise that he should be sent for later. I made no pretence about it, and he knew that it was only the question of a few hours when he walked back across the palace square to his quarters. I came back to the verandah, and found Elsie waiting to speak to me.
“Will he die?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Quite sure?”
There was a strange glitter in her eyes which I could not understand.
“Quite,” I answered, forgetting to be professional. She looked at me for a moment as if she were about to say something, and then she apparently decided not to say it.
I went towards a long chair which stood on the verandah.
“I shall lie down here,” I said, “and sleep for an hour.”
“Yes, do,” she answered almost gratefully.
“You will wake me if you want me?”