'Well, Dulcie,' said Shafto, who, full of his own fears, contrived to confront her alone before the dinner, which was always a late one at Craigengowan, 'won't you even smile—now that we are for a little time apart—for old acquaintance sake?'
'How can I smile, feeling as I do—and knowing what I do?'
'What do you know?' he asked huskily, and changing colour at this new and stinging remark.
'That poor Florian is facing such perils in South Africa,' she replied in a low voice.
'Pooh! is that all?' said Shafto, greatly relieved; 'he'll get on, as well as he can expect, no doubt.'
'Amid all the wealth that surrounds you, could you not have done something for him?' asked the girl, wistfully and reproachfully.
'Poor relations are a deuced bother, and here they dislike his name somehow.'
As his fears passed away Shafto's aspect became menacing, and knowing her helplessness and her dependent position in the house to which he was the heir, for a moment or two the girl's spirit failed her.
'Well, what do you mean to say now?' he asked abruptly.
'About whom?' she asked softly and wonderingly.