When I asked her, how could we meet him if he
had not told us the time? she made a grievance of it, and said that was so
like him. So it is, of course."
Struan remained speechless, and had turned away his face. Miss Percival
continued her reflections aloud.
"How long has he been away? More than a year. He wrote once from
Singapore--then from Rawal-pindi--and that was all, until I got this
telegram. He's very casual, I must say." Here she paused.
Struan said suddenly, "Miss Percival, I'm going."
She turned with interest, and asked, with not too much interest, "Oh!
Why?"
He said, "You know why."
She lowered her voice by a tone, but no more. "I hope you won't. It would
be a pity. There's no real reason for it. I'll speak to Menzies to-morrow.
He doesn't mean any harm to you. He's only old and grumpy."
"He's a fool," said Struan. "Certainly, he's a fool. But that's neither
here nor there."
Miss Percival, ignoring what she chose to ignore, said again, "I hope you
won't go."
The young man shifted his ground, and dug his heel into the turf. "I must
--indeed, I must."
"Where shall you go?"
"God knows."
"Why must you go?"
"You know why."
"Is it because of Menzies?"
He threw his head up.
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