Gyp! He
wanted her. To be with her! To look at her and kiss her, and feel her
his own again! And, opening the door, he passed out on to the drive and
strode away, miserable and sick at heart. All the way to the station
through the darkening lanes, and in the railway carriage going up, he
felt that aching wretchedness. Only in the lighted street, driving back
to Rosek's, did he shake it off a little. At dinner and after, drinking
that special brandy he nearly lost it; but it came back when he went to
bed, till sleep relieved him with its darkness and dreams.
XII
Gyp's recovery proceeded at first with a sure rapidity which delighted
Winton. As the economic agent pointed out, she was beautifully made, and
that had a lot to do with it!
Before Christmas Day, she was already out, and on Christmas morning the
old doctor, by way of present, pronounced her fit and ready to go home
when she liked. That afternoon, she was not so well, and next day
back again upstairs. Nothing seemed definitely wrong, only a sort of
desperate lassitude; as if the knowledge that to go back was within her
power, only needing her decision, had been too much for her. And since
no one knew her inward feelings, all were puzzled except Winton. The
nursing of her child was promptly stopped.
It was not till the middle of January that she said to him.
"I must go home, Dad.
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