He leaned back in his chair with the air of one who is content to wait.
"Have you heard, Miss Fairclough," his younger companion enquired, a little diffidently, "whether Lady Cranston had any luck in town ?" Helen Fairclough looked away.

There was a slight mist before her eyes.
"I had a letter this morning," she replied.

"She seems to have heard nothing at all encouraging so far." "And you haven't heard from Major Felstead himself, I suppose ?" The girl shook her head.
"Not a line," she sighed.

"It's two months now since we last had a letter." "Jolly bad luck to get nipped just as he was doing so well," the young man observed sympathetically.
"It all seems very cruel," Helen agreed.

"He wasn't really fit to go back, but the Board passed him because they were so short of officers and he kept worrying them.