Her hands were clenched in one another, her fingers nervously interlocked.
"I shall send for him to come and see me the first thing to-morrow morning," she decided.
"You will do nothing of the sort," Thomson objected firmly.
She turned her head and looked at him.

He was conscious of the antagonism which had sprung up like a wall between them.

His face, however, showed no sign.
"How do you propose to prevent me ?" she asked, with ominous calm.
"By reminding you of your duty to your country," he answered.
"Geraldine, dear, I did not expect to have to talk to you like this.
When I tell you that responsible people in the War Office, officials whose profession it is to scent out treachery, have declared this young man suspect, I am certainly disappointed to find you embracing his cause so fervently.

It is no personal matter.

Believe, me," he added, after a moment's pause, "whatever my personal bias may be, what I am saying to you now is not actuated in the slightest by any feelings of jealousy.
I have told you what I know and it is for you to make your choice as to how much or how little in the future you will see of this young man.
But I do forbid you, not in my own name but for our country's sake to breathe a single word to him of what I have said to you." "It comes to this, then," she said, "that you make accusations against a man and deny him the right of being heard ?" "If you choose to put it like that, yes," he assented.