Eric shook his head sadly:
“Aren’t you strong enough to stand by yourself without wanting a man always to dominate you?”
The conversation was tiring her, and her voice became faintly petulant:
“When you’re lying in bed like this, all your will-power goes. And I couldn’t sleep last night. I kept thinking of Johnnie, I was frightened. You oughtn’t to have left me, Eric. Everything would have been all right, if you’d stayed here.”
“Gaisford thought I wanted a change,” he reminded her. “And I’m afraid I shall have to leave you again. He wants me to go abroad.”
“Oh, Eric, why? Are you ill?”
Her eyes were filled with concern; he wondered how much came from sympathy with him and how much from fear for herself.
“Apparently I am. He wants to rest me and fatten me up.”
“But how long will you be away?”
“A couple of years, I should think.”