Mrs Conolly took her gently by the arm.
"I can't have you looking like that, my child," she said. "Your eyes are like saucers, with indigo shadows under them. Did you sleep a wink last night?"
"Not many winks; that's why I am here."
"I see. You must be cruelly anxious about Captain Desmond, as we all are; but I will not believe that the worst can happen."
"No—oh no!" Honor spoke as if she were beating off an enemy. "But the trouble that kept me awake was—Evelyn."
"Ah! Is the strain going to be too much for her? Come to the sofa, dear, and tell me the whole difficulty."
Honor hesitated. She had her own reasons for wishing to avoid Mrs Conolly's too sympathetic scrutiny.
"You sit down," she said. "I feel too restless. I would rather speak first." And with a hint of inward perplexity Mrs Conolly obeyed.
"It's like this," Honor began, resting an arm on the mantelpiece and not looking directly at her friend, "Dr Mackay has asked me to take entire charge of Theo for the present. He spoke rather strongly,—rather cruelly, about not leaving him in Evelyn's hands. I think he wanted to force my consent; and for the moment I could not refuse. But this is Evelyn's first big chance of rising above herself; and if I step in and do everything I take it right out of her hands. This seems to me so unfair that I have been seriously wondering whether I ought not to—go right away till the worst is over." And she reiterated the arguments she had already put before Theo, as much in the hope of convincing herself as her friend.