And Nona nodded, not trusting herself to speak and praying that Eugenia would ask no more questions.
Nor did she, even during their walk to Madame Bonnèt’s, which seemed to Nona Davis about five times longer than it had when she had taken it alone on the morning of the same day.
Eugenia talked of matters connected with the hospital. Once she said that she hoped Barbara would now be content to devote more energy to her Red Cross nursing. They would be a good deal busier at the hospital in the future and she had merely allowed Barbara a greater freedom in her hours of work, expecting that she would be more content to adjust herself to the regular hospital routine later on.
“Marriage does not seem to have made Bab settle down; it appears rather to have had the opposite effect,” Eugenia had commented.
She had smiled at the moment, but Nona did not feel so convinced afterwards that Eugenia had not been more conscious of Barbara’s attitude than she had believed.
Then, just before they entered the garden at Madame Bonnèt’s, Eugenia stopped a moment.
“Nona, has Madame Bonnèt’s wish to see me anything to do with news of my husband?”
Eugenia asked the question quietly, yet she must have had the thought in her mind all the while. Her face was a little white, but except for this her self-control was wonderful.
“Yes,” Nona answered, not appreciating that her own expression made it impossible for Madame Castaigne to think the information she so desired could be of a happy kind.
For Nona’s one predominating fear was that Jeanne would be outdoors with her soldier and that Eugenia should first see her husband being led about by his little French friend. Yet would she recognize him in such a situation? Nona could not feel sure.