"Where have you been?" said she. "We haven't heard of you for ages."
"I've been ill."
Jane looked at him and said nothing.
"Ill? And you never told us?" said Nina.
"I was all right. I was well looked after."
"Who looked after you?"
He did not answer her. For in that instant there rose before him the image of Rose Eldred, tender and desirable, and it kept him dumb.
Nina, whose devil was nothing if not persistent, repeated her question. He divined already in Nina a secret, subtle hostility.
"Oh," he said abruptly. "I looked after myself."
Jane stared intently at a notice of the departure and arrival of trains.