"I hope that girl will soon have the sense to shake them off!" said the Captain with energy. "She's a deal too beautiful for that kind of thing. I shall get my mother to come and talk to her."
The solicitor concealed his smile behind his Daily Telegraph. He had a real liking and respect for the Captain, but the family affection of the Andrews household was a trifle too idyllic to convince a gentleman so well acquainted with the seamy side of life. What about that hunted-looking girl, the Captain's sister? He didn't believe, he never had believed that Mrs. Andrews was quite so much of an angel as she pretended to be.
Meanwhile, no sooner had the fly left the station than Delia turned to her companion—
"Gertrude!—did you see what that man was reading who passed us just now? Our paper!—the Tocsin."
Gertrude Marvell lifted her eyebrows slightly.
"No doubt he bought it at Waterloo—out of curiosity."
"Why not out of sympathy? I thought he looked at us rather closely. Of course, if he reads the Tocsin he knows something about you! What fun it would be to discover a comrade and a brother down here!"
"It depends entirely upon what use we could make of him," said Miss
Marvell. Then she turned suddenly on her companion—"Tell me really,
Delia—how long do you want to stay here?"
"Well, a couple of months at least," said Delia, with a rather perplexed expression. "After all, Gertrude, it's my property now, and all the people on it, I suppose, will expect to see one and make friends. I don't want them to think that because I'm a suffragist I'm going to shirk. It wouldn't be good policy, would it?"
"It's all a question of the relative importance of things," said the other quietly. "London is our head quarters, and things are moving very rapidly."