The other’s face clouded again.
“I’m goin’ in no convalescent home,” he said.
“My father’s been in the one at Seathorpe, an’ he liked it. Dr. Ansell would get you a recommend.”
Dawes lay thinking. It was evident he dared not face the world again.
“The seaside would be all right just now,” Morel said. “Sun on those sandhills, and the waves not far out.”
The other did not answer.
“By Gad!” Paul concluded, too miserable to bother much; “it’s all right when you know you’re going to walk again, and swim!”
Dawes glanced at him quickly. The man’s dark eyes were afraid to meet any other eyes in the world. But the real misery and helplessness in Paul’s tone gave him a feeling of relief.
“Is she far gone?” he asked.
“She’s going like wax,” Paul answered; “but cheerful—lively!”
He bit his lip. After a minute he rose.
“Well, I’ll be going,” he said. “I’ll leave you this halfcrown.”
“I don’t want it,” Dawes muttered.
Morel did not answer, but left the coin on the table.
“Well,” he said, “I’ll try and run in when I’m back in Sheffield. Happen you might like to see my brother-in-law? He works in Pyecrofts.”
“I don’t know him,” said Dawes.
“He’s all right. Should I tell him to come? He might bring you some papers to look at.”
The other man did not answer. Paul went. The strong emotion that Dawes aroused in him, repressed, made him shiver.
He did not tell his mother, but next day he spoke to Clara about this interview. It was in the dinner-hour. The two did not often go out together now, but this day he asked her to go with him to the Castle grounds. There they sat while the scarlet geraniums and the yellow calceolarias blazed in the sunlight. She was now always rather protective, and rather resentful towards him.
“Did you know Baxter was in Sheffield Hospital with typhoid?” he asked.
She looked at him with startled grey eyes, and her face went pale.
“No,” she said, frightened.
