THE AWKWARD AGE
me." But she came back with a sigh to the actual. "No matter. We must deal with what we've got."
"What have we got?" Edward continued. Again with no ear for his question, his wife turned away, only, however, after taking a few vague steps, to approach him with new decision. "If Mr. Longdon is due, will you do me a favor? Will you go back to Nanda—before he arrives—and let her know, though not, of course, as from me, that Van has been here half an hour, has had it put well before him that she's up there and at liberty, and has left the house without seeing her?"
Edward Brookenham made no motion. "You don't like better to do it yourself?"
"If I liked better," said Mrs. Brook, "I would have already done it. The way to make it not come from me is surely not for me to give it to her. Besides, I want to be here to receive him first."
"Then can't she know it afterwards?"
"After Mr. Longdon has gone? The whole point is that she should know it in time to let him know it."
Edward still communed with the fire. "And what's the point of that?" Her impatience, which visibly increased, carried her away again, and by the time she reached the window he had launched another question. "Are you in such a hurry she should know that Van doesn't want her?"
"What do you call a hurry, when I've waited nearly a year? Nanda may know or not as she likes—may know whenever: if she doesn't know pretty well by this time she's too stupid for it to matter. My only pressure's for Mr. Longdon. She'll have it there for him when he arrives."
"You mean she'll make haste to tell him?"
Mrs. Brook, for a moment, raised her eyes to some upper immensity. "She'll mention it."
Her husband, on the other hand, with his legs out-
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