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But Desmond had the man's tenderness, which is sometimes greater than the woman's: and, as Quita had once said, he was privileged, simply by being what he was. Having set glasses and spirit-decanter within reach of their two chairs, he came over to Lenox, and set both hands on his shoulders. "My dear fellow, it's no use shirking facts," he said straightly.
Already a remarkable assortment of these had challenged the winking stars; and Quita was encouraging the requisite headache, while Garth contemplated the suggestion of a stroll towards the lake, when Michael Maurice came up to them. "Quita, chérie, they have sent me to ask if you will sing. I have my fiddle here for accompaniment." She hesitated.
Quita asked, peering critically into the teapot, and wondering how it would feel to pour out Eldred's early tea! "Listen then; and judge for yourself: "'DEAR MR MAURICE, -There seems to have been an unlucky misunderstanding between you and mother yesterday. But I hope this need not make any real difference in our friendship. Because I think we have always understood each other, haven't we?
Small wonder then if Max Richardson enjoyed his convalescence, and was in no hurry to complete the process. As for Quita, she was unconsciously slipping back to her favourite pastime, to that alluring compound of friendship and etherealised flirtation which she had likened to fencing with the buttons off the foils.
Quita exclaimed, in a quick rush of tenderness, as her brother half ran to her, white and panting, both hands outstretched: and deserting Lenox, she flew to him, anathematising her own folly in a rapid flow of French. "Take me to my tent now," she concluded, linking her arm in his. "I still feel idiotically shaky, and I am certainly no loss to my side!
Then ten days later she met him on the station platform, travelling alone, and obviously down on his luck. He told her he was off to join his battery in India: nothing more. Problem: What, in the name of mystery, had he done with the lady?" At that Quita rose abruptly, her cheeks on fire, her whole frame tense with suppressed agitation. "Oh, stop stop.
With all its difficulties, it's an incomparable bond; as you'll find out, once you two are on the right footing. But you're hardly fit enough yet to see things in their true perspective. All this Gilgit business is still a good way ahead; and I can only say that if it does come to spending a good part of your service up in the wilds, you could not have chosen a woman more fitted for it than Quita.
When her tears were under control, she drew herself up, brushing them from her cheeks and lashes. "Yes, it has been a strain," she admitted. "And I did so hope this had brought news I could give her, at last. You don't see her as I do, Theo, lying there day after day, so frail and white and patient. Quita patient! Can you picture it? I quite long for a flash of her old perversity.
Of all this Quita was airily unaware. Since he had given up coming to bed at unearthly hours, she concluded that he slept. Mixed motives had held him silent in regard to the threatening shadow of opium, even during her moment of collapse and self-reproach after the expedition dinner; and of his dawning jealousy he was at once too ashamed and too proud to speak.
Quita motioned her companion to another rock, a little distance behind her own. "Sit down there, and recover your lost breath," she commanded, gently. "I would rather not talk for the present, if you don't mind. It would jar somehow. I daresay you understand what I mean." He was many leagues removed from understanding: but he obeyed in silence, wondering at himself, no less than at her.
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