She saw them turn and walk side by side across the grass towards the creek.

She noticed that Ethne seemed to plead, and in her heart she longed to overhear.
And Ethne was pleading.
"You saw your oculist yesterday ?" she asked quickly, as soon as they met.

"Well, what did he say ?" Durrance shrugged his shoulders.
"That one must wait.

Only time can show whether a cure is possible or not," he answered, and Ethne bent forward a little and scrutinised his face as though she doubted that he spoke the truth.
"But must you and I wait ?" she asked.
"Surely," he returned.

"It would be wiser on all counts." And thereupon he asked her suddenly a question of which she did not see the drift.