Edwards sprang to his feet and extended both arms, whether for Jack or the wood was not quite clear. At that moment Enid came from the kitchen and Una from the bedroom. Enid moved wood swiftly in the brass fireside box to make way for the new lot. Why couldn’t I have done that? Edwards thought, scurrying for a seat on the couch, where he viewed Jack’s solid, unrelenting back. Una took a seat beside him. How cruel that he could not put out a hand and hold hers, lying with palm upturned in her fawn silk lap. Enid made her way around the table, putting the cruet to the centre, smoothing the cloth here and there. Then she sat, quite abruptly for her, on the other side of Edwards, murmuring to the room generally that dinner was only minutes away. The two of them, the two of them! He should have gone on with that letter to his mother. He wrote on in his mind. Both these beautiful girls are mine for the asking. He saw Jack suddenly a lonely, sorrowful figure by the fire.
