She stretched out her hands to him. Loring pulled her to her feet and led her to the door.
"Leave him alone!" he repeated roughly.
Barbara left by the ten o'clock train, while the rest of the house-party was still in bed. Her maid was well used to sudden changes of plan, but she ventured to point out that the family was at the Abbey and that the house in Berkeley Square was closed.
"Well, it will have to be opened, then," said Barbara.
She had not gone to bed, and there were dark rings round her eyes; but she was clear-headed and determined. Her maid tried to tempt her with breakfast before their long drive, but Barbara did not want to eat until she had seen Jack. In the train she could hardly keep her eyes open; but, until she had seen Jack, she did not want to sleep. Every one seemed to be hurrying to London, as though there would be later news of the war there; and she heard a far away babble of what Lichnowski had said, what Kuhlmann had proposed for localizing the war.... But she was wondering only what Jack was about. The luncheon-car attendant slid open the door, but she shook her head at him; the idea of food nauseated her, and she was glad to have the compartment to herself for half an hour.
When her fellow-travellers returned, they found her with her head against the window and her arms limply by her side. One of them hurried away for water, and, when she shivered and opened her eyes, some one had laid her flat on the seat, and a voice—the first kind voice that she had heard for days—was saying:
"Carriage a bit hot for you? Or perhaps you're not a good traveller. I'm a doctor—or used to be. Just going up to see if the War Office wants volunteers in case of war. I saw you didn't come along to lunch; when did you last have anything to eat?"
"I've really forgotten," Barbara answered.
"I thought so. Well, a cup of coffee and a biscuit, eh? And I'll try to get you a little more room."
He whispered to the men who were standing in the corridor and distributed them in the other compartments until he and Barbara were alone. After the coffee she felt less sick and from Swindon to London she was able to get some sleep. At Paddington the doctor wanted to take her home, but she protested that her maid could do all that was necessary, and he left her with an urgent recommendation to bed.