Yesterday their sense of strangeness had made silence feel uncomfortable. Now that they slipped back into the old intimacy, it felt companionable. Yet neither was thinking directly of the other. Each was thinking of the woman he loved.
By chance their eyes encountered in a friendly smile, and Roy spoke.
"Daddums—you've come alive! I believe you're almost as happy over it—as I am?"
"You're not far out. You see"—his eyes grew graver—"I'm feeling ... Mother's share, too. Did you ever realise...?"
"Partly. Not all—till just now. Tara told me."
There was a pause. Then Sir Nevil looked full at his son.
"Roy—I've got something to tell you—to show you ... if you can detach your mind for an hour——?"
"Why, of course. What is it—where?"
He looked round the room. Instinctively, he knew it concerned his mother.
"Not here. Upstairs—in her House of Gods." He saw Roy flinch. "If I can bear it, old boy, you can. And there's a reason—you'll understand."