Captain Langrishe's face, however, did not invite questions. He made no allusion at all to the happenings of the afternoon, and his sister felt that she could not ask him. She had a heavy heart for him as she bade him good-night, although she called something after him with a cheerful pretence about their rendezvous next morning.
"It is nine-thirty at Fenchurch Street, isn't it?" she asked.
"Do you think you will ever manage it, Bel?" Captain Langrishe smiled at her haggardly.
"Oh, yes, easily—by staying up all night," she answered.
But her heart was as heavy as lead for him.
CHAPTER XV
THE GENERAL HAS AN IDEA
When Sir Denis came home from his club that evening he learned that Miss Nelly had gone to bed with a headache.
Pat, who told him, looked away as he gave the information, as though he did not believe in his own words. Miss Nelly with a headache! Why, God bless her, she had never had such a thing, not from the day she was born! To be sure, the whole affectionate household knew that there was some cloud over Miss Nelly. They didn't talk much about it. Pat and Bridget knew better than to have the servants' hall gossiping over the master and Miss Nelly. A new under-housemaid, who was greatly addicted to the reading of penny novelettes, suggested that Miss Nelly was being forced into marrying her cousin by the machinations of his mother, who was not persona grata with the servants' hall. But Pat had nipped the young person's imaginings in the bud.