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Updated: June 8, 2025
Merston, and to Sylvia's surprise she took and pressed her hand for a moment. There was more comfort in that simple pressure than Sylvia could have believed possible. She returned it with that quick warmth of hers which never failed to respond to kindness, and in that second the seed of friendship was sown upon fruitful ground. The moment passed, sped by Mrs.
She got up. But she could not refrain from flinging another acid remark as she did so. "I really think if Englishmen must live in South Africa, they ought to be content with Boer wives." "Oh, should you like your husband to have married a Boer wife?" said Sylvia. Mrs. Merston smiled grimly. "You are evidently still in the fool's paradise stage. Make the most of it! It won't last long.
Later, when she took Sylvia to the guest-room, which was no more than a corrugated iron lean-to lined with boarding, she unexpectedly drew the girl to her and kissed her. But still she did not say a word. It was a strange friendship that developed between Sylvia and Matilda Merston during the days that followed; for they had little in common.
Merston asked point-blank, in the tone of one presenting a challenge. Sylvia paused for a moment, only a moment, and then she answered, "Yes." "And you've been married how long? Six weeks?" "About that," said Sylvia. Mrs. Merston looked at her, and an almost cruel look came into her pale eyes. "Ah! You wait a little!" she said. "You're young now. You've got all your vitality still in your veins.
But how shall we ever find him?" He was silent for a moment, and she felt as if those steel-grey eyes of his were probing for her soul. "That," he said slowly, "will not be a very difficult business." "You know where he is?" she questioned eagerly. "Yes. Merston told me to-day." "Oh, Burke!" The eager kindling of her look made her radiant. "Where is he? What is he doing?"
All day long she had been forcing the picture that Mrs. Merston had painted for her into the background of her thoughts. All day long it had been pressing forward in spite of her. It seemed to be burning her brain, and now she could not ignore it any longer. Sitting there exhausted in mind and body, she had to face it in all its crudeness.
Merston looked after her, and very strangely her face altered. Something of that mother-love in her which had so long been cheated showed in her lustreless eyes. "Oh, poor child!" she said. "I am sorry." It was briefly spoken. She was ever brief in her rare moments of emotion. But there was a throb of feeling in the words that reached Sylvia. She turned impulsively back again.
Merston looked at Sylvia. "And you left young Guy behind? It was very sporting of you to go after him like that. Burke told me about it. I blame myself that he wasn't on the spot to help. I hope the journey wasn't very infernal?" He spoke with so kindly an interest that but for Burke's presence she would have felt no embarrassment. He evidently thought that she had acted with commendable courage.
It was within reach of her hand. But for many breathless seconds she dared not. What it was that stood outside she had no idea, but the thought of Kieff was in her mind Kieff the vampire who was dead. She felt herself grow cold all over. She had only to cross the narrow room and knock on the main wall of the bungalow to summon Merston. He would come at a moment's notice, she knew.
He began to dispute the point, but meeting most unexpected lightning in her pale eyes he thought better of it, and after a few seconds for deliberation and the due assertion of his masculine superiority, he lumbered to his feet and prepared to depart. Mrs. Merston followed him firmly to the door, reiterating, her belief in a coming change.
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