"I can't—here."
Mary stared. She understood.
"You're ill. Poor dear, you shall see him this minute."
She rang the bell.
LXV
Five minutes passed before Rowcliffe came to Gwenda in the study.
"Forgive me," he said. "I had a troublesome patient."
"Don't be afraid. You're not going to have another."
"Come, you haven't troubled me much, anyhow. This is the first time, isn't it?"
Yes, she thought, it was the first time. And it would be the last. There had not been many ways of seeing Steven, but this way had always been open to her if she had cared to take it. But it had been of all ways the most repugnant to her, and she had never taken it till now when she was driven to it.