Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 2.djvu/79

Rh thing?" His sharpness brought him step by step across the lawn and nearer to her. "Do you care so very much what he wants?"

Again she hesitated; then, with her pleased, patient smile, she tapped the empty place on the bench. "Come and sit down beside me, and I'll tell you how much I care." He obeyed her, but not precipitately, approaching her with a deliberation which still held her off a little, made her objective to his inspection or his mistrust. He had said to Mrs. Beever that he had not come to watch her, but we are at liberty to wonder what Mrs. Beever might have called the attitude in which, before seating himself, he stopped before her with a silent stare. She met him at any rate with a face that told him there was no scrutiny she was now enough in the wrong to fear, a face that was all the promise of confession and submission and sacrifice. She tapped again upon her bench, and at this he sat down. Then she went on: "When did you come back?"

"To England? The other day—I don't remember which of them. I think you ought to answer my question," Dennis said, "before asking any more of your own."