“Rilly! How interesting!”

This constraint was irksome. He ventured:

“How is the old boy? Sir Joseph, I mean. He’s well, I hope.”

Her eyes widened. “Didn’t you know? Didn’t you read in the papers––about their death together?”

“Theirs? His wife and he died together?”

“Yes.”

88

“In a submarine attack?”

“No, at home. It was in all the papers––about their dying on the same night, from––from ptomaine poisoning.”

“No!”