Has that occurred to you? . . . " He looked up
at last . . . "Mrs. Anthony, I can't bear the sight of the fellow." She
met his eyes without flinching and he added, "You want to go to him now."
His mild automatic manner seemed the effect of tremendous
self-restraint--and yet she remembered him always like that. She felt
cold all over.
"Why, of course, I must go to him," she said with a slight start.
He gnashed his teeth at her and she went out.
Anthony had not moved from the spot. One of his hands was resting on the
table. She went up to him, stopped, then deliberately moved still
closer. "Thank you, Roderick."
"You needn't thank me," he murmured. "It's I who . . . "
"No, perhaps I needn't. You do what you like. But you are doing it
well."
He sighed then hardly above a whisper because they were near the state-
room door, "Upset, eh?"
She made no sign, no sound of any kind. The thorough falseness of the
position weighed on them both. But he was the braver of the two. "I
dare say. At first. Did you think of telling him you were happy?"
"He never asked me," she smiled faintly at him.
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