'But who could keep house for him? Prudentia?'
'No,' said Dr. Arthur, 'I cannot manage any prudence but my own.
But Dane, I am in earnest. I want you to let your reserve force rest.
You may reach corners where you will need it all.'
'What are "corners" in mill-work?' said the silent little figure in the depths of the cushioned chair. Dr. Arthur turned to her instantly, listening with almost critical attention while she spoke; but then he drew back and waited for Rollo to give the answer.
'A corner,' said Dane with critical gravity, 'is a place where your path is crossed by another. Which indeed usually makes two corners; perhaps four.'
'What do you do then?'
'Turn. That is, if I cannot go straight on.'
'Therefore you see that with a train of fifteen hundred men, a corner is an awkward place,' said Dr. Arthur.
Wych Hazel went back to her cushions and her pondering, making no reply. And Dr. Arthur, waiting for the answer which came not, took out his pencil and a card and began idly sketching an imaginary house. 'There,' he said, handing it over to Rollo,'see if you can execute that?'Across the house was written:
'Make her talk. I want to hear her.'
'There is another sort of corner,' Dane went on meditatively, after glancing at the card;'a corner where ways end instead of meeting. The corner of a wall, for instance, inside, where there is no way out but to jump the wall.'