He had been looking at her searchingly. She gave him the impression of being older than when he had seen her at Royd, a woman full grown and no longer half a child, though the delicacy and freshness of youth still marked her. She had, in fact, ceased to arrange her hair as still growing girls wear it, and there was some to him indefinable difference in her clothes. He said he would stay until her father came in, and she motioned him to her father’s chair, and sat down in her own on the other side of the fire, facing him. She seemed to wait for him to speak first. He could tell nothing by her manner, which was smiling and self-possessed, though her self-possession was not more than is becoming to a young girl, secure in her youth and charm. "I suppose you know that Harry has left home to enlist in the army," he said. Her colour deepened a little upon the mention of her lover’s name, but she did not shrink from his gaze, and the faint smile was still on her lips as she said: "I thought that he might, although he didn’t say he would." So of course she knew, and had been prepared for the question. "Probably he had not quite made up his mind by the time you left Royd," he said. She did not reply to this, and he thought he could see that she had decided not to admit anything, probably under Harry’s directions. Again there came to him the sense of dislike at interfering with what Harry had decided. He could not fence with her to make her say what Harry didn’t want her to say, or force her to say that she could not answer his questions. She was frank and innocent. It would seem an impertinence to put her into the position of defending a reticence. "We have been very anxious about him at home," he said. "We are anxious still—not to get him to come back, but that he should not cut himself off from us. I’ve come up to London on purpose to get a message to him if I can. I didn’t tell Lady Brent I should come here, or say anything about you. She thinks I have only come to see Mr. Gulliver, the family solicitor, and ask him to find out, if he can, where Harry is. His mother can hardly bear the thought of not hearing from him for months, and not knowing where he is. Lady Brent was not altogether unprepared for his enlisting. She couldn’t have been a party to it, as he’s not even of an age to enlist yet, and I suppose he’s had to represent himself as older than he is in order to get taken. But she told me herself that she was proud of him for doing it, and she certainly wouldn’t do anything to interfere with him, now he’s taken the matter into his own hands. If he knew that——" He did not finish his sentence, which was on the note of appeal to her. Nor did he look at her. There was a pause. Then she said, "I haven’t seen Harry, you know, Mr. Wilbraham." He looked at her then, and saw that there were tears in her eyes. So his appeal had not been without its effect.