Page:Conflict (1927).pdf/102

 serve, without apology, as a frightened child to a brother much older. Yet John was several years his junior.

Afterwards John said quietly, seriously, just as if anxiety deserved as much consideration as suffering from an actual calamity, 'Well, Sid, I'll go upstairs and see. You'd better go out and take a walk for half an hour, and I'll be able to tell you definitely, I think, when you get back. And, look here, don't worry too much, Sid. I really don't think there's a chance in a hundred.'

He was like a rock. John Sheldon was like a rock. Even if the terrible thing proved true, still he would be like a rock.

Of course Sidney didn't go outdoors. 'Be as quick as you can,' he said at Sheilah's door, and went downstairs again into the living-room.

The window-shades were still drawn down. He hadn't noticed it till now. No maids stirring yet, of course. He wasn't used to seeing the window-shades drawn down in the living-room when it was light outside. It was as if some one had died. The evening paper was all tossed about on the floor, too, in dreadful confusion, just as he had left it, he supposed, when he had rushed upstairs last night (was it only last night?) when Dora had called him, frightened, from the upper hall, and he had heard Sheilah crying out in that horrible way. He began raising the