He doesn't care in the least what I do! And nobody will think it a bit odd--if you and I don't talk.' Elizabeth turned away.

The touch of scorn in her bearing was not lost on Pamela.
'And if I refuse to stay on, without saying or doing anything--to put myself right--you threaten to run away ?' 'I do--I mean it,' said Pamela firmly.

She had not only hardened again under the sting of that contempt she detected in Elizabeth, but there was rising up in her a sudden and rapturous vision of London:--Arthur at the War Office--herself on open ground--no longer interfered with and over-shadowed.

He would come to see her--take her out, perhaps, sometimes to an exhibition, or for a walk.

The suggestion of going to Margaret had been made on the spur of the moment without after-thought.