Her hand directed him towards the car.
Cyprian obeyed, hypnotized. Once they were seated she swung sideways to look him full in the face.
"Do you know why I have risked this? For love of Ferlie. You might have consigned me to the devil, had you developed into an official of high standing, very much married, with a brace of inarticulate, spectacled children. Instinct told me that you were alone in spirit, even if among your fellow-men; overworking, and living at the bottom of a mine, not of rubies, but of buried hopes. Was I right?"
He nodded, blinking nervously at his hands. Her voice had lost its hard-edged clarity.
"When I saw you two, one afternoon at the Zoo—you remember?—I thought that the link, strengthening between you as the years went on, was wholly unnatural. You were Ferlie's sun, though neither of you realized it. And she stood to you for refreshment and comfort and utter peace. Again—Was I right?"
He stirred uneasily.
"Can you not spare me this?"
"No," said Aunt Brillianna emphatically. "I can spare you nothing if Ferlie is to be spared a little. Listen."
She lowered her tone and, above the humming of the car, her voice ran on earnestly. Pain was again wrenching at his nerves and the sentences sounded blurred and disconnected....
"And no one knows the real truth. They are not, officially, separated, but she lives alone at Black Towers with John, her little boy...."