CHAPTER VI

THE PARTING

Sylvia entered the sitting-room that day with the feeling of one returning after a prolonged absence.  She had been almost too tired to notice her surroundings the previous night upon arrival.  Her limbs felt leaden still, but her brain was alive and throbbing with a painful intensity.

Mary Ann informed her that the big baas was out on the lands, and she received the news thankfully.  Now was her chance!  She took it, feeling like a traitor.

Once more she went to Burke’s room.  She opened the strong-box stealthily, listening intently for every sound.  She slipped the packet of notes inside, and shut it again quickly with a queer little twist of the heart as she caught sight of the envelope containing the cigarette which once he had drawn from between her lips.  Then with a start she heard the sound of hoofs outside the window, and she knew that Burke had returned.

She hurried from the room with the key in her hand, meeting him in the passage.  He had his back to the light, but she thought he looked very grim.  The past weeks had aged and hardened him.  She wondered if they had wrought a similar change in her.

He spoke to her at once, before she had time to formulate a greeting.

“Ah, here you are!  Will you come in here?  I want to speak to you.”

She went into the sitting-room with a curious feeling of fatefulness that outweighed her embarrassment.  There was no intimacy in his speech, and that helped her also.  She saw that he would not touch upon that which had happened in the night.

He gave her a critical look as he entered.  “Are you rested?  Have you had breakfast?”

She answered him nervously.  “Yes, I am quite all right to-day.  Mary Ann brought me some breakfast in bed.”

He nodded, dismissing the matter.  “I have been over to see Merston.  He is on his legs again, practically well.  But she is not feeling up to the mark.  She wants to know if you will go over.  I told her I thought you would.  But don’t go if you would rather not!”

“Of course I will go,” Sylvia said, “if I can do any good.”

And then she looked at him with a sudden curious doubt.  Had this suggestion originated with him.  Did he feel, as she felt, that the present state of affairs was intolerable?  Or was he, for her sake alone, offering her the only sanctuary in his power?

His face told her nothing.  She had not the faintest idea as to whether he wished her to go or stay.  But he accepted her decision at once.

“I will take you over in the cart this evening,” he said.  “I thought you would probably wish to go.  They are more or less expecting you.”

His tone was practical, wholly free from emotion.  But the wonder still lingered in her mind.  She spoke after a moment with slight hesitation.