Part 19 (1/2)
”Yes; you will find Mrs Adair if you go up the steps on to the terrace,” said Ethne
”I came to see Miss Eustace”
Ethne turned back to hier conteht”
He twirled first one ain
”I have had some trouble to find you, Miss Eustace I went all the way to Glenalla--for nothing Rather hard on a man whose leave is short!”
”I am very sorry,” said Ethne, with a sain the stranger curled a ain his eyes dwelt vacantly upon her before he spoke
”You have forgotten my name, no doubt, by this time”
”I do not think that I have ever heard it,” she answered
”Oh, yes, you have, believe hby”
Ethne drew sharply back; the bright colour paled in her cheeks; her lips set in a firlowered at hiree discomposed He took his time to speak, and when he did it was rather with the air of ahis excuses
”I can quite understand that you do not welcome me, Miss Eustace, but none of us could foresee that you would be present when the three white feathers came into Feversham's hands”
Ethne swept the explanation aside
”How do you know that I was present?” she asked
”Feversham told me”
”You have seen him?”
The cry leaped loudly from her lips It was just a throb of the heart made vocal It startled Ethne as hby She had schooled herself to ohts, and to obliterate him from her affections, and the cry showed to her how incompletely she had succeeded Only a few minutes since she had spoken of him as one whom she looked upon as dead, and she had believed that she spoke the truth
”You have actually seen hiazed at her stolid companion with envy ”You have spoken to hio, at Suakin Else why should I be here?”
The question cauess the correct answer; she was not, indeed, sufficiently mistress of herself to speculate upon any answer, but she dreaded it, whatever it ht be
”Yes,” she said slowly, and alhby took a letter-case from his breast, opened it with deliberation, and shook out from one of its pockets into the palm of his hand a tiny, soiled, white feather He held it out to Ethne