"And you might just as well have come back strong and splendid, like you went away?"
"No use thinking of what might have been, darling. We've got to set our teeth and face what is."
"Oh, Theo—you are very brave."
"Needs must, Ladybird. If a man fails in that, he had better not have been born. And you are going to be brave too,—my wife."
"Yes,—I hope so. But—it's much more horrible than I ever imagined; and if it's going on for weeks and weeks——"
The prospect so unnerved her that she leaned her head against him, sobbing bitterly.
"Oh, I can't—I can't——!"
The low cry came straight from her heart; and Desmond understood its broken protest to the full. The effort to uphold her was to be useless after all. He compressed his lips and gently released her hand.
"If it's as bad as that, my dear, and you really feel it will be too much for you," he said in a changed tone, "I might arrange for Honor to take you away in a day or two, till I am well enough to follow on. They all know here that you are not strong. One need not degrade you by telling—the whole truth."