Shafto certainly started at this intelligence.
'In Zululand,' he chuckled; 'he too there! Well, beggars can't be choosers, so he chose to take the Queen's shilling.'
'Oh, Shafto, how hard-hearted you are!' exclaimed Dulcie, restraining her tears with difficulty.
'Am I? So he has left you—gone away—become a soldier; well, I don't think that a paying kind of business. Why bother about him?'
'Why—Shafto?'
'It will be strange if you do so long.'
'Wherefore?'
'Because, to my mind, a woman is seldom faithful, unless it suits her purpose to be so; and in this instance it won't suit yours.'
Dulcie's eyes sparkled with anger, though they were eyes that, fringed by the longest lashes, looked at one usually sweetly, candidly, with an innocent and fearless expression. Her bosom heaved, as she said—
'Florian will gain a name for himself, I am sure; and if he dies——' Her voice broke.