And if it does get about, well, they'll only
praise me for my discretion. They can't do anything else."

Still, she longed timorously to confide in Janet. And when Janet had
departed she breathed relief because the danger of confiding in Janet
was withdrawn for the moment.

III

Later, as the invalid had ordained, Hilda, having eaten, sat by the fire
in the large, quiet bedroom of Mr. and Mrs. Orgreave. The latter was
enjoying a period of ease, and lay, with head raised very high on
pillows, in her own half of the broad bed. The quilt extended over her
without a crease in its expanse; the sheet was turned down with
precision, making a level white border to the quilt; and Mrs. Orgreave
did not stir; not one of her grey locks stirred; she spoke occasionally
in a low voice. On the night-table stood a Godfrey's Chloride of Ammonia
Inhaler, with its glass cylinder and triple arrangement of tubes. There
was only this, and the dark lips and pale cheeks of the patient, to
remind the beholder that not long since the bed had been a scene of
agony. Mr. Orgreave, in bright carpet slippers, and elegant wristbands
blossoming out of the sleeves of his black house-jacket, stood bending
above a huge board that was laid horizontally on trestles to the left of
the fireplace. This board was covered by a wide length of bluish
transparent paper which at intervals he pulled towards him, making
billows of paper at his feet and gradually lessening a roll of it that
lay on the floor beyond the table. A specially arranged gas-bracket with
a green shade which threw a powerful light on the paper showed that
Osmond Orgreave's habit was to work in that spot of an evening.

"Astonishing I have to do this myself, isn't it?" he observed, stooping
to roll up the accumulated length of paper about his feet.

"What is it?" Hilda asked.

"It's a full-sized detail drawing. Simple!... But do you suppose I could
trust either of my ingenious sons to get the curves of the mouldings
right?"

"You'll never be able to trust them unless you begin to trust them,"
said Mrs. Orgreave sagely from the bed.

"Ha!" ejaculated Osmond Orgreave satirically. This remark was one of his
most effective counters to argument.

"The fact is he thoroughly enjoys it, doesn't he, Mrs. Orgreave?" said
Hilda.

"You're quite right, my dear," said Mrs. Orgreave.

"Ah!" from Mr. Orgreave.

He sketched with a pencil and rubbed out, vigorously. Then his eye
caught Hilda's, an