After that the spirit of our relations changed. The old ease had gone.
She came to me less frequently, and when she came she would have some
one with her, usually old Carnaby, and he would do the bulk of the
talking. All through September she was away. When we were alone
together there was a curious constraint. We became clouds of
inexpressible feeling towards one another; we could think of nothing
that was not too momentous for words.
Then came the smash of Lord Roberts α, and I found myself with a
bandaged face in a bedroom in the Bedley Corner dower-house with
Beatrice presiding over an inefficient nurse, Lady Osprey very pink and
shocked in the background, and my aunt jealously intervening.
My injuries were much more showy than serious, and I could have been
taken to Lady Grove next day, but Beatrice would not permit that, and
kept me at Bedley Corner three clear days. In the afternoon of the
second day she became extremely solicitous for the proper aeration of
the nurse, packed her off for an hour in a brisk rain, and sat by me
alone.