," I cried.

Betty, unmoved by my ferocity, laughed and rose from the piano.

"Shall I take the call?"

To Betty I was all urbanity. "If you'll be so kind, dear," said I.

She crossed the room and stopped the abominable buzzing.

"Yes. Hold on for a minute. It's the post-office"--she turned to
me--"telephoning a telegram that has just come in. Shall I take it down
for you?"

More urbanity on my part. She found pencil and paper on an escritoire
near by, and went back to the instrument. For a while she listened and
wrote. At last she said:

"Are you sure there's no signature?"

She got the reply, waited until the message had been read over, and
hung up the receiver. When she came round to me--my back had been half
turned to her all the time--I was astonished to see her looking rather
shaken. She handed me the paper without a word.

The message ran:

"Thanks yesterday's telegram. Just got home. Queen Victoria Hospital,
Belton Square. Must have talk with you before I communicate with my
mother. Rely absolutely on your discretion. Come to-morrow. Forgive
inconvenience caused, but most urgent."

"It's from Boyce," I said, looking up at her.

"Naturally."

"I suppose he omitted the signature to avoid any possible leakage
through the post-office here."

She nodded. "What do you think is the matter?"

"God knows," said I. "Evidently something very serious."

She went back to the piano seat. "It's odd that I should have taken
down that message," she said, after a while.

"I'll sack Marigold for putting you in that abominable position," I
exclaimed wrathfully.

"No, you won't, dear. What does it signify? I'm not a silly child. I
suppose you're going to-morrow?"

"Of course--for Mrs. Boyce's sake alone I should have no alternative."

She turned round and began to take up the thread of the Nocturne from
the point where she had left off; but she only played half a page and
quitted the piano abruptly.

"The pretty little spell is broken, Majy. No matter how we try to
escape from the war, it is always shrieking in upon us. We're up
against naked facts all the time. If we can't face them we go under
either physically or spiritually. Anyhow--" she smiled with just a
little touch of weariness,--"we may as well face them in comfort."

She pushed my chair gently nearer to the fire and sat down by my side.
And there we remained in intimate silence until Marigold announced the
arrival of her car.

CHAPTER