"So will I, Steyn," said Elly.
She kissed him.
He turned to go; but there was a ring and Anna came down the stairs:
"I didn't dare disturb Mrs. Thérèse," she said. "She's so wrapped up in her prayers that ... Why, look, Mr. Lot: there's Mamma ... and your English brother!..."
"Damn it!" said Steyn, between his teeth. "I can't see her again...."
"Steyn!" said Elly, in a voice of entreaty.
She was sorry for Lot, who sat huddled in a chair and unable to restrain himself: he was crying, though he knew that it wasn't manly.
Anna had opened the door and Ottilie and Hugh came in. They met Steyn in the passage. He and she looked each other in the eyes. Hugh's hand went to his cap, as in salutation to a stranger. They passed one another without a word; and Steyn walked out of the door. That was his leave-taking of his wife: he never saw her again; and with him there passed the last remnant of all her life of love.
"I came to see how Mamma is," she said to Elly, to Anna. "And Hugh would so much like to see his grandmother. But Mamma is still in bed, isn't she, Anna?..."
She entered the morning-room: