Page 207 (1/2)

Helena had asked Dr Lavendar to keep David, out of abject fear of

Williaive him up

without explanations; if she had not done so then, hethe child to the Rectory she had not

given hi's

hands and gained a breathing-space in which to decide what she , with scared

eyes, lest he should stop on his way up to Benjaht's to say

that the truce was over David ca joyously home two or three

ti about her

neck and tell her of his journey Upon one of these occasions, he

" Helena's heart

stood still; then beat suffocatingly in her throat while she drew the

story piecemeal from the child's lips

"She said," David babbled, "that he didn't know you An' she said--"

"And where was he--Mr Pryor, all this time?" she demanded,

breathlessly She opened and shut her hands, and drew in her breath,

wincing as if in physical pain; across all the days since thather for the contrete sense of finality the

completeness of the break between theed with personal dis blindly