"About myself. You say you're not tired: well, I am. Horribly tired ..."
In an instant she was all tender anxiety. "Oh, I've seen it coming on,
Newland! You've been so wickedly overworked--"
"Perhaps it's that. Anyhow, I want to make a break--"
"A break? To give up the law?"
"To go away, at any rate--at once. On a long trip, ever so far
off--away from everything--"
He paused, conscious that he had failed in his attempt to speak with
the indifference of a man who longs for a change, and is yet too weary
to welcome it. Do what he would, the chord of eagerness vibrated. "Away
from everything--" he repeated.
"Ever so far? Where, for instance?" she asked.
"Oh, I don't know. India--or Japan."
She stood up, and as he sat with bent head, his chin propped on his
hands, he felt her warmly and fragrantly hovering over him.
"As far as that? But I'm afraid you can't, dear ..." she said in an
unsteady voice. "Not unless you'll take me with you." And then, as he
was silent, she went on, in tones so clear and evenly-pitched that each
separate syllable tapped like a little hammer on his brain: "That is,
if the doctors will let me go ... but I'm afraid they won't. For you
see, Newland, I've been sure since this morning of something I've been
so longing and hoping for--"
He looked up at her with a sick stare, and she sank down, all dew and
roses, and hid her face against his knee.
"Oh, my dear," he said, holding her to him while his cold hand stroked
her hair.
There was a long pause, which the inner devils filled with strident
laughter; then May freed herself from his arms and stood up.
"You didn't guess--?"
"Yes--I; no. That is, of course I hoped--"
They looked at each other for an instant and again fell silent; then,
turning his eyes from hers, he asked abruptly: "Have you told any one
else?"
"Only Mamma and your mother." She paused, and then added hurriedly, the
blood flushing up to her forehead: "That is--and Ellen. You know I told
you we'd had a long talk one afternoon--and how dear she was to me."
"Ah--" said Archer, his heart stopping.
He felt that his wife was watching him intently. "Did you _mind_ my
telling her first, Newland?"
"Mind? Why should I?" He made a last effort to collect himself. "But
that was a fortnight ago, wasn't it? I thought you said you weren't
sure till today."
Her colour burned deeper, but she held his gaze. "No; I wasn't sure
then--but I told her I was. And you see I was right!" she exclaimed,
her blue eyes wet with victory.