Suddenly I became aware that there was a dead silence in the room. How long it had lasted I can’t tell, but when I looked up there were Vere and Will staring at me, and looking as if they had been staring for an age, and couldn’t understand what on earth was the matter. I jumped and got red, and blinked away the tears, and Vere said—
“What is the matter, child? Have you had bad news? You look as if your heart was broken!”
“Oh, no—there’s no news at all. I am tired, I think, and stupid, and wasn’t thinking of what I was doing.”
“You seemed to be thinking of something pretty deeply; and what business have you to be tired—a baby like you? I have been prescribing for her to-day, Mr Dudley. Have you noticed how thin she has grown? She hadn’t discovered it herself until I told her, wonderful to relate.”
“I don’t think she has thought of herself at all these last few months,” said Will, quietly.
He only just gave one glance at me, and then looked away, and I was thankful, for every drop of blood in my body seemed to fly to my face in the joy of hearing him praise me like that. Vere did not speak for a moment or two, and then she just asked who the letter was from.
“Lorna Forbes. She writes every week. I haven’t written to her for an age—nearly a month.”
They both knew about Lorna, and teased me about her when I quoted her opinion, and now, to my surprise, Will lifted his eyes from the carpet, and said, looking me full in the face—
“And she wants you to pay her a visit, and you think you ought not to go?”
How could he guess? I was so taken aback that at first I could only gasp and stare.