"One is responsible," and he turned the word over in his mind, stupidly probing its meaning.
Hla Byu picked up the restless bundle as she flitted into the shaded gloom of the sitting-room, out of the white glare blocked by the verandah chicks.
Cyprian absently received his letters from her hands.
"The school is in Maymyo," he said inconsequently. "It will be best for him to go where there will be others like him."
The puzzled wonderment of her expression merged into amusement. She had learnt something of this man during the last two years. Something, also, of latent powers in herself which he would have paid much, in after life, to have left unstirred. She gave a tiny exclamatory chirp of laughter.
"At fourteen months, Thakin? That would, indeed, be somewhat early, even for him."
With relief he recalled that the time for such decisions was not yet. One might drift a little longer....
But Fate disproved that. Among the official letters lay one in a strange handwriting. He turned it over incuriously, but there was a seal on the back which quickened his interest. He could not recollect where he had seen it before. The first words of the letter startled him.
"Dear Ferlie's Cyprian,"—Stiffening, he turned the sheet over to read the signature, "B. Trefusis." Then he remembered. A tea-shop.... Ferlie buried in ice-cream and, to the right of her, a vivacious shingled head ... the same seal on a thin white wrinkled finger, curved over a plate of honey-coloured scones. He spread the letter out upon the blotting-paper and, resting his drawn forehead on sheltering palms, read it slowly through.
"If you were ever a friend of Ferlie's, try and come to her. Once, I should have said, if you were ever a friend of Ferlie's try and leave her. I never considered you a successful substitute for the uncle she did not possess, but the very difference in age between you, which I deplored, I now rejoice in. Perhaps, she will confide in you; perhaps, you will be able to help where the few that are near and dear to her are excluded from helping.