He wondered a little why she did not come to him, but only answered him from a distance.
"I'll dress and be out in a moment," he called.
"All right!"
Now that Maurice was awake at last, Hermione's grief at the lost afternoon became much more acute, but she was determined to conceal it. She remained where she was just then because she had been startled by the sound of her husband's voice, and was not sure of her power of self-control. When, a few minutes later, he came out upon the terrace with a half-amused, half-apologetic look on his face, she felt safer. She resolved to waste no time, but to tell him at once.
"Maurice," she said, "while you've been sleeping I've been living very fast and travelling very far."
"How, Hermione? What do you mean?" he asked, sitting down by the wall and looking at her with eyes that still held shadows of sleep.
"Something's happened to-day that's—that's going to alter everything."
He looked astonished.
"Why, how grave you are! But what? What could happen here?"
"This came."