He makes rather a wry face. ‘I didn’t always like it, memsahib. But I knew my dear, and could trust her; and I often swore to myself when I was shaving, “I won’t ask her to settle down until I have given her a year in England.” A year from to-day, you harum-scarum. By that time your daughter will be almost grown-up herself; and it wouldn’t do to let her pass you.’
‘Robert, here is an idea; she and I shall come of age together. I promise; or I shall try to keep one day in front of her, like the school-mistresses when they are teaching boys Latin. Dearest, you haven’t been disappointed in me as a whole, have you? I haven’t paid you for all your dear kindnesses to me—in rupees, have I?’
His answer is of no consequence, for at this moment there arrives a direct message from heaven. It comes by way of the nursery, and is a child’s cry. The heart of Alice Grey stops beating for several seconds. Then it says, ‘My Molly!’ The nurse appears, starts, and is at once on the defensive.
NURSE. ‘Is it—Mrs. Grey?’
ALICE hastily, ‘Yes. Is my—child in there?’
NURSE. ‘Yes, ma’am.’
COLONEL, ready to catch her if she falls, ‘Alice, be calm.’
ALICE, falteringly, ‘May I go in, nurse?’
NURSE, cold-heartedly, ‘She’s sleeping, ma’am, and I have made it a rule to let her wake up naturally. But I daresay it’s a bad rule.’
ALICE, her hands on her heart, ‘I’m sure it’s a good rule. I shan’t wake her, nurse.’