Somewhere up in the North Sea, to-day
and to-morrow and the next day, men are giving their lives for
their country. What do you care? You will sit there smoking your
pipe and catching dabs!"
"Do you know you are almost offensive, Philippa?" her husband said
quietly.
"I want to be," she retorted. "I should like you to feel that I am.
In any case, this will probably be the last conversation I shall
hold with you on the subject."
"Well, thank God for that, anyway!" he observed, strolling to the
chimneypiece and selecting a pipe from a rack. "I think you've
said about enough."
"I haven't finished," she told him ominously.
"Then for heaven's sake get on with it and let's have it over," he
begged.
"Oh, you're impossible!" Philippa exclaimed bitterly. "Listen.
I give you one chance more. Tell me the truth? Is there anything
in your health of which I do not know? Is there any possible
explanation of your extraordinary behaviour which, for some reason
or other, you have kept to yourself? Give me your whole confidence."
Sir Henry, for a moment, was serious enough. He stood looking down
at her a little wistfully.
"My dear," he told her, "I have nothing to say except this. You
are my very precious wife. I have loved you and trusted you since
the day of our marriage. I am content to go on loving and trusting
you, even though things should come under my notice which I do not
understand.
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