‘Why, then, have you come now?’

‘Because I am ill and can be alone no longer.’

Thyrza scarcely breathed.  It was as though all her senses had merged in one—­that of hearing.  Her eyes beheld nothing, and she was conscious of no more bodily pain.  She listened for the very breathing of the two, who were so close to her that she might almost have touched them.

’How do you know that people are occupying themselves with your concerns at all?’

’From Jersey I went to France.  When I reached London again, knowing nothing of what had happened whilst I was away, I met Dalmaine and his wife at Charing Cross station.  They turned away, and refused to speak to me.  When I got home, I found what it meant.  Grail told me plainly what the general opinion was.’

‘You saw Grail?’

’Of course.  You think, naturally, that I should have hidden my face from him.’

’Don’t be so harsh with me.  You forget that I have still to learn everything.’

’Yes, I will tell you; I will explain; I will defend myself.  I want your sympathy, and I will do my best to prove that I am not contemptible.’

’Hush!  Be quiet for a moment.  I have not written to you because I thought it needless to make conjectures, and ask questions, and give assurances, when you were sure, sooner or later, to come and tell me the whole story.  I won’t pretend that I have not had my moments of uneasiness.  For instance, I wrote to you to Jersey, and the letter was returned to me; that came disagreeably, in connection with news I just then had from London; it was only human to suppose that for some reason you had talked of going to Jersey, and then had not gone there at all.’

’Grail followed me there, and, failing to find me, of course had the same thought.’

’And yet, you know, I could think more calmly than was possible for him.  Now tell me all that you wish.  What had happened, that this suspicion fell upon you?’

Thyrza heard a complete and truthful account of all that had passed between herself and Egremont, from the first meeting in the library to their parting near Lambeth Bridge.

Then Mrs. Ormonde asked: 

‘And where is she?’

’If only I knew:  She has written to her sister, but without saying where she is, only that she has been ill, and is safe with people who are kind to her.’

‘And what is your explanation of her disappearance?’

‘I believe she could not marry Grail, loving another man.’

The silence that followed seemed very long to the listener.  She dreaded lest they should end their conversation here.  In that story of those meetings and partings, as told by Egremont, there had now and then been a word, a tone, that seemed to bear meaning yet incredible to her.  By degrees she was realising all that her flight had entailed upon those she left, things undreamt of hitherto.  But the last word of explanation was still to come.  She did not dare to anticipate it, yet her life seemed to depend upon his saying something more.