My
feeling may be a terrible misfortune; I didn't make it; I can't see the
end. There isn't any, I think." He pressed her hands to his throat with
a gesture that half dragged her from the sofa. A deeper colour stained
her cheeks, and her breath caught. "Endless," he repeated, losing the
word on her lips. She wilted into a corner of the sofa, and he strode
over to the fire, stood gazing blindly at the pulsating embers. Howat
returned to her almost immediately, but she made no sign of his
nearness. The bitterness had left her face, she appeared weary, pallid;
she sat heedlessly crumpling her flounces, a hand bent back on its
wrist.
"I think it is something in myself," she said presently; "something a
little wrong that I'm dreadfully tired of. Always men. Out here a Howat
Penny, just like any fribble about the Court. God, I'd like to be that
girl across the road, in the barnyard." He was back at the fire again
when Gilbert Penny entered the room. The latter dropped a palm on
Howat's shoulder.
"Schwar says the last sow metal was faulty," he declared; "the
Furnace'll need some attention with Abner Forsythe deeper in the
Provincial affairs. Splendid thing David's back. Look for a lot from
David." Howat hoped desperately that Ludowika would not leave, go to her
room, while his father was talking.
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