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Page 9
"You can leave them until you draw the blinds, Mills," Philippa
directed. "I am not at home, if any one should call. See that
we are undisturbed for a little time."
"Very good, your ladyship."
The door was closed, and the two women were once more alone.
Philippa held out her arms.
"Helen, darling, come and be nice to me," she begged. "Let us both
pretend that no news is good news. Oh, I know what you are
suffering, but remember that even if Dick is your lover, he is my
dear, only brother--my twin brother, too. We have been so much to
each other all our lives. He'll stick it out, dear, if any human
being can. We shall have him back with us some day."
"But he is hungry," Helen sobbed. "I can't bear to think of his
being hungry. Every time I sit down to eat, it almost chokes me."
"I suppose he has forgotten what a whisky and soda is like,"
Philippa murmured, with a little catch in her own throat.
"He always used to love one about this time," Helen faltered,
glancing at the clock.
"And cigarettes!" Philippa exclaimed. "I wonder whether they give
him anything to smoke."
"Nasty German tobacco, if they do," Helen rejoined indignantly.
"And to think that I have sent him at least six hundred of his
favourite Egyptians!"
She fell once more on her knees by her friend's side. Their arms
were intertwined, their cheeks touching. One of those strange,
feminine silences of acute sympathy seemed to hold them for a while
under its thrall. Then, almost at the same moment, a queer
awakening came for both of them. Helen's arm was stiffened.
Philippa turned her head, but her eyes were filled with incredulous
fear. A little current of cool air was blowing through the room.
The French windows stood half open, and with his back to them, a
man who had apparently entered the room from the gardens and passed
noiselessly across the soft carpet, was standing by the door,
listening. They heard him turn the key. Then, in a businesslike
manner, he returned to the windows and closed them, the eyes of
the two women following him all the time. Satisfied, apparently,
with his precautions, he turned towards them just as an expression
of indignant enquiry broke from Philippa's lips. Helen sprang to
her feet, and Philippa gripped the sides of her chair. The newcomer
advanced a few steps nearer to them.
CHAPTER III
It seemed to the two women, brief though the period of actual
silence was, that in those few seconds they jointly conceived
definite and lasting impressions of the man who was to become,
during the next few weeks, an object of the deepest concern to
both of them. The intruder was slightly built, of little more than
medium height, of dark complexion, with an almost imperceptible
moustache of military pattern, black hair dishevelled with the
wind, and eyes of almost peculiar brightness. He carried himself
with an assurance which was somewhat remarkable considering the
condition of his torn and mud stained clothes, the very quality
of which was almost undistinguishable. They both, curiously enough,
formed the same instinctive conviction that, notwithstanding his
tramplike appearance and his burglarious entrance, this was not a
person to be greatly feared.
The stranger brushed aside Philippa's incoherent exclamation and
opened the conversation with some ceremony.
"Ladies," he began, with a low bow, "in the first place let me
offer my most profound apologies for this unusual form of entrance
to your house."
Philippa rose from her easy-chair and confronted him. The firelight
played upon her red-gold hair, and surprise had driven the weariness
from her face. Against the black oak of the chimneypiece she had
almost the appearance of a framed cameo. Her voice was quite steady,
although its inflection betrayed some indignation.
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