Page:A Son at the Front (1923) Wharton.djvu/29

"I disagree with you entirely," she retorted, her voice shrill with anxiety. "I was frightfully upset when I sent you that telegram yesterday; but I've been lunching to-day with the old Duc de Montlhéry—you know he fought in 'seventy—and with Lévi-Michel of the 'Jour,' who had just seen some of the government people; and they both explained to me quite clearly———"

"That you'd made a mistake in coming up from Deauville?"

To save himself Campton could not restrain the sneer; on the rare occasions when a crisis in their lives flung them on each other's mercy, the first sensation he was always conscious of was the degree to which she bored him. He remembered the day, years ago, long before their divorce, when it had first come home to him that she was always going to bore him. But he was ashamed to think of that now, and went on more patiently: "You see, the situation is rather different from anything we've known before; and, after all, in 1870 all the wise people thought till the last minute that there would be no war."

Her delicate face seemed to shrink and wither with apprehension.

"Then—what about George?" she asked, the paint coming out about her haggard eyes.

Campton paused a moment. "You may suppose I've thought of that."