'If not in the field it will be where England's heroes usually die.'
'Where?'
'In the workhouse,' was the mocking response of Shafto; and he thought, 'If he is killed by a Zulu assegai, or any other way, to prevent exposure or public gossip, the game will still lie in my hands.'
In the public prints Dulcie had of course seen details of the episode of Lieutenants Melville and Coghill, and their attempts to save that fatal colour, which was afterwards found in the Buffalo, and decorated with immortelles by the Queen at Osborne; the papers also added that the colour-sergeant who accompanied them was missing, and that his body had not been found.
Missing!
As no name had yet been given, Dulcie was yet mercifully ignorant of what that appalling word contained for her!
'Already you appear to be quite at home here in Craigengowan,' said Shafto, after an awkward pause.
'I am at home,' replied Dulcie simply; 'and hope this may be the happiest I have had since papa died.'
(But she doubted that, with Shafto as an inmate.)
'I am glad to hear it; but you don't mean to treat me—an old friend—as you have done?'