He faced her again.
"I suppose if he was ill you'd have to look after him. I don't see that you're bound to look after his sisters-in-law. Why can't the Brodricks look after her?"
"They do. But it's me she wants."
He softened, looking down at her. But she did not see his look.
"You think," said she, "that it's odd of her—the last thing anybody could want?"
His face changed suddenly as the blood surged in it. He sat down, and stretched his arms across the table that was the barrier between them. His head leaned towards her with its salient thrust, its poise of impetus and forward flight.
"If you knew," he said, "the things you say——"
His hands made a sudden movement, as if they would have taken hers that lay nerveless and helpless, almost within their grasp.
She drew her hands back.
"It's nearly ten o'clock," she said.