Page:The Outcry (London, Methuen & Co., 1911).djvu/248

234 to him, and there's talk of a 'Ladies' League of Protest'—all of which keeps up the pitch."

"Poor Amy and I are a ladies' league," the girl joylessly joked—"as we now take in the 'Journal' regardless of expense."

"Oh then you practically have it all—since," Hugh added after a brief hesitation, "I suppose Lord Theign himself doesn't languish uninformed."

"At far-off Salsomaggiore—by the papers? No doubt indeed he isn't spared even the worst," said Lady Grace—"and no doubt too it's a drag on his cure."

Her companion seemed struck with her lack of assurance. "Then you don't—if I may ask—hear from him?"

"I? Never a word."

"He doesn't write?" Hugh allowed himself to insist.

"He doesn't write. And I don't write either."

"And Lady Sandgate?" Hugh once more ventured.

"Doesn't she write?"

"Doesn't she hear?" said the young man,