"Raney and I had better make ourselves scarce," I told Sonia, as her mother was called out of the room for the sixth time.
"Let me just talk to a few of these fellows first," begged O'Rane. "We may have been through the same places."
He jumped up and hurried out of the room with his fingers through Jumbo's collar.
"D'you care to walk back part of the way with us?" I asked Sonia.
She shook her head, and her eyes filled with tears.
"He doesn't like me near him. Didn't you see? He never spoke a word to me the whole way coming here. George—" she hesitated, and played with the hem of her handkerchief—"George, is it true he refused an interpretership on the staff?"
"He could have had one," I said.
"Well, when he went into the ranks ..."
"Sonia, don't try to take all the troubles of the world on your shoulders. Frankly, you don't look as if you could stand much more."
She lingered for a moment at the window, looking out on to the lawn where O'Rane was sitting cross-legged on the grass, surrounded by soldiers. Then she walked to the door.