Peak was delighted, and betrayed the feeling even whilst he constrained his face into a look of exaggerated anxiety.
‘It won’t be anything serious, I hope? The railway journey, I’m afraid.’
‘Yes, the journey. She has a slight hoarseness, but I think we shall prevent it from’——
Their eyes kept meeting, and with more steadfastness. They were conscious of mutual scrutiny, and, on both sides, of changes since they last met. When two people have devoted intense study to each other’s features, a three months’ absence not only revives the old impressions but subjects them to sudden modification which engrosses thought and feeling. Sidwell continued to utter commonplaces, simply as a means of disguising the thoughts that occupied her; she was saying to herself that Peak’s face had a purer outli
