was a moment of
waiting for someone to reply; eyes were turned towards Mr. Bradley, and
when it became plain that no one would, broken murmurs of talk began
with a note of deprecation and many shakes of the head. The women,
especially, looked tragically at their neighbours with very wide-open
eyes. Presently a chair was drawn back, and then another, and people
began to filter, in slow embarrassment, towards the door. Lindsay came
with Hilda's cloak. "You won't mind my coming with you," he said, "I
should like to hear the details." Beryl Stace made as if to embrace her,
pouring out abusive disbelief, but Hilda waved her away with a gesture
almost of irritation. Some of the others said a perfunctory word or two,
and went away with lingering backward looks. In a quarter of an hour,
Mr. Lindsay's brougham had followed the other vehicles into the lamp-lit
ways of Calcutta, and only the native table-servants remained in
somewhat resentful possession of what was left.

CHAPTER XXIV

If Duff Lindsay had apprehended that the reception of Miss Filbert by
the Simpsons would involve any strain upon the affection his friends
bore him, the event must have relieved him in no small degree. He was
soon made aware of its happy character, and constantly kept assured;
indeed, it seemed that whenever Mrs. Simpson had nothing else to do
she laid her pen to the task of telling him once again how cherished
a satisfaction they found in Laura, and how reluctant they would be to
lose it. She wrote in that strain of facile sympathy which seems part
of an Englishwoman's education, and often begged him to believe that the
more she knew of their sweet and heavenly-minded guest the more keenly
she realised how dreary for him must have been the pang of parting
and how arid the months of separation. Mrs. Simpson herself was well
acquainted with these trials of the spirit. She and her husband had been
divided by those wretched thousands of miles of ocean for three years
one week and five days all told during their married life: she knew what
it meant. But if Duff could only see how well and blooming his beloved
one was--she had gained twelve pounds already--Mrs. Simpson was sure the
time of waiting would pass less heavily. For herself, it was cruel but
she smiled upon the deferred reunion of hearts, she would keep Laura
till the very last day, and hoped to establish a permanent claim on her.
She was just the daughter Mrs. Simpson would have liked