CHAPTER XXX.
SUSPENSE.
"Down thou climbing sorrow!
Thy element's below."
King Lear.
"Till now thy soul has been
All glad and gay:
Bid it awake, and look
At grief to-day."
Adelaide Anne Procter.
As Althea walked into the library, she was aware that Waveney was following her closely. Doreen had made some excuse and had gone off to her own room, probably to write letters.
"Do you want me to read to you to-night?" asked Waveney. She looked wonderfully bright and animated this evening. As she spoke she slipped her hand into Althea's arm, in a coaxing, girlish way. "Dear Miss Harford, I am not a bit tired. I feel as springy as possible"—this being a favourite word in the Ward vocabulary to express latent and superfluous energy.
"No, my child, not to-night," returned Althea, gravely. "Waveney, dear, I am afraid I have rather bad news for you. You were out when the message came, so I went over to Cleveland Terrace to inquire."
Then a troubled, almost a scared look, came into the girl's eyes.