As for “saving” her, Mrs. Gaddesden had not been allowed to attempt it.  In the first place, Elizabeth had stoutly denied that there was anything to save her from.  “Don’t believe anything at all, dear Mummy, that Arthur Delaine may have said to you!  I have made a great friend—­of a very interesting man; and I am going to correspond with him.  He is coming to London in November, and I have asked him to stay here.  And you must be very kind to him, darling—­just as kind as you can be—­for he has had a hard time—­he saved Philip’s life—­and he is an uncommonly fine fellow!”

And with that—­great readiness to talk about everything except just what Mrs. Gaddesden most wanted to know.  Elizabeth sitting on her mother’s bed at night, crooning about Canada—­her soft brown hair over her shoulders, and her eyes sparkling with patriotic enthusiasm, was a charming figure.  But let Mrs. Gaddesden attempt to probe and penetrate beyond a certain point, and the way was resolutely barred.  Elizabeth would kiss her mother tenderly—­it was as though her own reticence hurt her—­but would say nothing.  Mrs. Gaddesden could only feel sorely that a great change had come over the being she loved best in the world, and that she was not to know the whys and wherefores of it.

And Philip—­alack! had been of very little use to her in the matter!

“Don’t you bother your head, Mother!  Anderson’s an awfully good chap—­but he’s not going to marry Elizabeth.  Told me he knew he wasn’t the kind.  And of course he isn’t—­must draw the line somewhere—­hang it!  But he’s an awfully decent fellow.  He’s not going to push himself in where he isn’t wanted.  You let Elizabeth alone, Mummy—­it’ll work off.  And of course we must be civil to him when he comes over—­I should jolly well think we must—­considering he saved my life!”

Certainly they must be civil!  News of Anderson’s sailing and arrival had been anxiously looked for.  He had reached London three days before this date, had presented his credentials at the Board of Trade and the Colonial Office, and after various preliminary interviews with ministers, was now coming down to Martindale for a week-end before the assembling of the small conference of English and colonial representatives to which he had been sent.

Mrs. Gaddesden saw from the various notices of his arrival in the English papers that even in England, among the initiated he was understood to be a man of mark.  She was all impatience to see him, and had shown it outwardly much more plainly than Elizabeth.  How quiet Elizabeth had been these last days! moving about the house so silently, with vaguely smiling eyes, like one husbanding her strength before an ordeal.