Page:Confidence (London, Macmillan & Co., 1921).djvu/94

 were leaning on the railing, looking into the street, and apparently amusing themselves highly with what they saw.

"I am not sure it was a natural request for him to make," said Angela.

"What could have been more so—devoted as he is to you?"

She hesitated a moment; then with a little laugh—

"He ought to have locked us up and said nothing about it."

"It's not so easy to lock you up," said Bernard. "I know Gordon has great influence with you, but you are, after all, independent beings."

"I am not an independent being. If my mother and Mr. Wright were to agree together to put me out of harm's way, they could easily manage it."

"You seem to have been trying something of that sort," said Bernard. "You have been so terribly invisible."

"It was because I thought you had designs upon us; that you were watching for us—to take care of us."

"You contradict yourself! You said just now that you believed I had left Baden."

"That was an artificial—a conventional speech. Isn't a lady always supposed to say something of that sort to a visitor by way of pretending to have noticed that she has not seen him?"

"You know I would never have left Baden without coming to bid you good-bye," said Bernard.

The girl made no rejoinder; she stood looking out at the little sunny, slanting, rough-paved German street.

"Are you taking care of us now?" she asked in a moment. "Has the operation begun? Have you heard the news, mamma?" she went on. "Do you 86