I happened to have a glimpse of the movement at which he pounced on her and caught her in the act." I had thought it all out; my idea explained many things, and Dawling turned pale as he listened to me.
"Was he rough with her ?" he anxiously asked.
"How can I tell what passed between them?
I fled from the place." My companion stared.

"Do you mean to say her eyesight's going ?" "Heaven forbid! In that case how could she take life as she does ?" "How _does_ she take life?
That's the question!" He sat there bewilderedly brooding; the tears rose to his lids; they reminded me of those I had seen in Flora's the day I risked my enquiry.

The question he had asked was one that to my own satisfaction I was ready to answer, but I hesitated to let him hear as yet all that my reflections had suggested.
I was indeed privately astonished at their ingenuity.

For the present I only rejoined that it struck me she was playing a particular game; at which he went on as if he hadn't heard me, suddenly haunted with a fear, lost in the dark possibility.

"Do you mean there's a danger of anything very bad ?" "My dear fellow, you must ask her special adviser." "Who in the world is her special adviser ?" "I haven't a conception.