He smiled as if it amused him to be addressed so formally.
"Do you really mean it, or are you frightening us? Will Ally really die—or go mad—if she isn't—happy?"
He was grave again.
"I really mean it. It's a rather serious case. But it's only 'if.' As
I told you, there are scores of women—"
But she waived them all away.
"I only wanted to know."
Her voice stopped suddenly, and he thought that she was going to break down.
"You mustn't take it so hard," he said. "It's not as if it wasn't absolutely curable. You must take her away."
Suddenly he remembered that he didn't particularly want Gwenda to go away. He couldn't, in fact, bear the thought of it.
"Better still," he said, "send her away. Is there anybody you could send her to?"