“Then I think you ought to be enlightened. You remember that paper which the poor doctor left, in which he warned us that you would probably be the next of us to be attacked? Well, Major North doesn’t mean you to be poisoned if he can prevent it. That’s all, and it explains his eccentric behaviour fully.”
“Oh!” Georgia sat silent, a vivid crimson spreading over her face. “But it isn’t fair that he should be allowed to risk his life in that way, Lady Haigh,” she said at last.
“Very well, my dear; tell him so.”
“But that would sound so ungrateful. Couldn’t you tell him?”
“I could say that you would prefer to be poisoned rather than to be helped after him, certainly.”
“Oh, Lady Haigh, you are unkind; you know it isn’t that! It is that I can’t bear him to be always running the risk of being poisoned instead of me.”
“Well, if you want my opinion, I should say that was a matter for Major North to decide for himself.”
“Excuse me—I think it is a thing for me to decide.”
“My dear Georgie, you are very persistent. I can only repeat—settle it yourself with Major North.”
But as Lady Haigh had foreseen, Georgia decided that it was not advisable to broach the subject to Dick, and the matter was therefore left untouched.