Rose winced. It is astonishing how much a smile can hurt. “Wasn’t it the best way?—at least the only way?” she answered, appealingly.
He shrugged his shoulders. “So he doesn’t know she’s here?”
“Doesn’t even know she’s coming,” Rose answered, meekly.
“And he will be overwhelmed with joy?” Mayne inquired, with another smile, difficult to meet.
Rose decided to show fight. “Yes, I think he will,” she replied.
There was a pause, while he looked out of the window. When he spoke, it was with his back to her.
“And Cecily? Does she want this—this reconciliation?”
Mrs. Summers smothered the thought of the possible result of the interview in progress.
“Yes. On the whole—yes. She was touched at what I wrote of his looking so ill.”
“Wasn’t that hitting below the belt?” Mayne asked, with more than a touch of mockery. “And he’s still away?” he added, when she did not reply.