She has promised to spend a few days with me while Dad is away." Colonel Campion's thin, bronzed face was grim, but he raised no objection to the projected visit.

He turned at once to Max.
"Hullo, Wyndham! You, is it?
Come in and have a drink." And Olga, feeling herself dismissed, hastened away to find her friend.
She stood somewhat in awe of Colonel Campion, despite the fact that his young half-sister defied him continually with impunity.

There was something fateful and forbidding about him.

He made her think of a man labouring perpetually under a burden which he resented, but was compelled to bear.

She wondered what he and Max Wyndham could have in common as she paused at the sea-window on the stairs to cool her cheeks.
He had certainly been pleased in his gloomy fashion to see Max, though he had not troubled to give her a welcome.
She found that Violet had not proceeded much further with her packing than when she had left her more than an hour before.