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Updated: June 13, 2025
His eyes came suddenly to her face, and she realised at once that until that moment he had scarcely looked at her; and in that second's flash she saw something in them that hurt: a swift, deep trouble that he was struggling to hide. He looked away again quickly, noting the lovely shades of the room, the masses of violets, the general airiness and elegance. "Is Meryl at home?" "Yes.
"My dear Meryl, you will look at things always in the sentimental light. A woman with a husband and child in this freshness and sunshine is at least better off than if she were in a city slum, and her man probably out of work, and her child dying for want of fresh air." "But that is not the only alternative!... And in any case to suffer in company is almost always easier than to suffer alone."
"I think you are excessively rude, Diana," Meryl said, though she smiled with the rest. Carew smiled too, but he rose from his seat and moved away on some small pretence. And as he went, Meryl, watching with eyes that were daily gaining clearer sight, saw that the shadow was as of some deep, unfathomable pain.
She went up to her at once and slipped her arm through that of the silent figure. Meryl pressed it, but for a moment or two did not speak. Diana did not speak either; for once in her life she had nothing to say. At last Meryl said, as if answering some thought deep in her own mind, "William told me to-night that there was someone else he loved.
Later, for a few moments, Meryl again stood out on the balcony, enjoying the June night, and as she looked at the stars she smiled softly. She was going back to Africa, after all her Africa, and perhaps Life would give her something big to do yet. And half unconsciously, though with a sense of pleasurable possession, she stood with her eyes to the south.
Meryl sat on a footstool near him, watching his face anxiously, while Diana, with an open book on her knee, listened from the depths of an enormous arm-chair in which she had curled herself. "Shouldn't we ever need to wash?" she asked suddenly, in a sprightly voice that set them all laughing. "Well, it's a hot country, you know," said her uncle, "but it might be more or less optional."
"Really, Meryl!" she said, "you look as ridiculously pleased as a cat with kittens. You are quite the most unaccountable creature in the world. What, in the name of fortune, is the good of going to Rhodesia? Frankly, I'd rather stay in England." But Meryl only smiled happily, and made no comment. "Oh, put the light out," snapped Diana.
Thus the three weeks passed, and the moment of the inevitable decision came near. And all the time Meryl felt herself rather as one who stood upon a difficult, stony place, with the forbidden land behind her and the clear call of a great need before. She believed that she would never see Carew again; that definitely and forever he had cut the threads of deep sympathy both had known existed.
When he came on the third day, he walked into the drawing-room to look for Meryl, and found Diana reading in the window alone. They discovered each other suddenly, and it was almost as if he gave a guilty start; and he looked unusually pale, with haggard eyes, as if he had slept badly of late. Diana saw it all, but gave no sign.
Diana was beginning to feel rather like a swimmer out of his depth. "I beg your pardon, it is not; but we will let it pass for the moment. Granting that what you have told me is true, what do you expect me to do?" "Tell Meryl the truth." "And what is the truth?" He was gazing hard at her again, and Diana began to wish she could run away and hide.
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