“And yet there must be thousands at this very minute, as we sit here, who are knowingly being enclosed by those walls. I suppose we humans, on the whole, are a poor lot, and yet sometimes I am struck with amazement at the courage of men and women,” said Colin thoughtfully. “When I pass through the crowded suburbs, I marvel at the amount of quiet, unnoticed heroism those brick walls must contain. But Fay—You have a difficult task before you, Claudia. You can’t travel alone. I will take you back to London.”
Claudia was longing to accept the offer, but she shook her head. “Oh, no! thank you, Colin. You needn’t coddle me. Pat came over alone.”
“Yes; but she came in the day-time, and you are travelling at night. Can’t be done, madam. Pat will look after our patient.”
“I wish you wouldn’t fuss over me,” said Gilbert testily. “Of course I am glad of your company, but I don’t need any kind of looking after. I’m not a hysterical, nervy woman. A man who is taking a rest isn’t a patient of anyone’s.”
“Gilbert, don’t be grumpy,” said Pat, who was never in the least overawed by Gilbert. “All men want looking after. If you are rude, I shall follow you round the links with a tin of Brand’s Essence and a spoon.”
Colin’s presence on the journey was a great comfort, for he was quietly thoughtful without being fussy, and she did not feel under any necessity to talk to him, unless she had something to say. But she was pleasantly conscious of his sympathy with her miserable errand. He took her to the door of the flat and left her.
Claudia was startled when she saw her brother. She had never believed it possible that anyone could go to pieces so badly in such a short time. His young, unlined face was haggard, his eyes were sunken and dull.
“Claudia, if you hadn’t come, I should have put an end to myself. I can’t stand seeing her suffer so. I wish I hadn’t told her, but she’s too cute for me. She always was.”
“How did you come to blurt it out?”
“Why, we were sitting quietly together, and I was teaching her double-dummy, when she said, ‘Jack, isn’t it too bad, I shall never get better?’—quite quietly—just like I say it, and of course I—well, I gave the show away. She’d been suspicious for a long time, it seems. She remembers the case of a man in her profession that got hurt in the same way years ago. She knows how miserably he died a year afterwards.... She’d never said anything about it before. Must have been thinking it out. She raved it all out at me.” He shivered. “I shall never get over this, Claudia.”