But it can wait a minute." Sir Terence pushed back his chair, and rose.

He crossed slowly to his secretary's side.
"What's on your mind, Ned ?" he asked with abrupt solicitude, and Ned could not suspect that it was the matter on Sir Terence's own mind that was urging him--but urging him hopefully.
Captain Tremayne looked up with a rueful smile.

"I thought you boasted that you never forced a confidence." And then he looked away.

"Sylvia Armytage tells me that she is thinking of returning to England." For a moment the words seemed to Sir Terence a fresh irrelevance; another attempt to change the subject.

Then quite suddenly a light broke upon his mind, shedding a relief so great and joyous that he sought to check it almost in fear.
"It is more than she has told me," he answered steadily.