The possibility was a novel one. Roger considered it carefully, for a moment. "By Jove, you will!" he cried finally. "I'll be hanged if you won't," he added with enthusiasm. He wondered why the tears seemed to well the faster in his sister's eyes.
CHAPTER III
"YOU DON'T KNOW MR. IMRIE"
The news of Judith's "mad whim" spread rapidly through Braeburn, and various were the comments it evoked. For the most part they savoured of condolence, although there was some sentimental approbation for what was characterised by one enthusiast as the "nobility" of her course. This had its effect upon Roger, and in time, he also came to feel admiration for her, and then, as a natural consequence of his own participation in the affair, he came to feel an admiration for himself. From out and out hostility to the idea, therefore, he changed insensibly to ardent and voluble sympathy.
At first Judith had admitted to herself quite frankly that the situation bore possibilities of annoyance. Aside from her guest's potentially dangerous familiarity with her daily life, she sensed in him a certain lack of knowledge—or at least of observance—of those social amenities upon which her training, more than her instinct, led her to place considerable emphasis. It was with this feeling of an unbridgeable gulf between them, that she approached their first meeting after the accident. And it was with no little embarrassment, therefore, that she entered his room.
The lines of pain had disappeared from his face, and the removal of the stubble which had covered his chin when they had had their first encounter, together with his rest, and—though she did not suspect that—several meals much more bounteous than those to which he was accustomed, had improved his appearance surprisingly. He greeted her unaffectedly.
"Hello," he said. "I've been waiting to see you. I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am for—all this."
"And I," she cried, "can't begin to tell you how sorry I am that it all happened. I...."
"Well, then," he said with a smile which revealed two rows of strong, even and very white teeth, "let's not either of us try."