CHAPTER XXVIII
RED RUIN
“You sent for me, and I am here.”
The brusque, curt speech sounded a knell to the faint hope which Sara had been tending whilst she waited for Garth's coming. His voice, the dogged expression of his face, the chill, brief manner, each held its grievous message for the woman who had learned to recognize the signs of mental stress in the man she loved.
“Yes, I sent for you,” she said. “I—I—Garth, I have seen Elisabeth.”
“Yes?” Just the one brief monosyllable in response, uttered with a slightly questioning inflection. Nothing more.
Sara twisted her hands together. There was something unapproachable about Garth as he stood there—quiet, inflexible, waiting to hear what she had to say to him.
With an effort she began again.
“She has told me of something—something that happened to you, in the past.”
“Yes? Quite a great deal happened—in my past. What was it, in particular, that she told you?”