Conversation turned on the war.Soames thought Ladysmith would fall,and it might last a year.Bellby thought it would be over by the summer.Both agreed that they wanted more men.There was nothing for it but complete victory,since it was now a question of prestige.Winifred brought things back to more solid ground by saying that she did not want the divorce suit to come on till after the summer holidays had begun at Oxford,then the boys would have forgotten about it before Val had to go up again;the London season too would be over.The lawyers reassured her,an interval of six months was necessary--after that the earlier the better.People were now beginning to come in,and they parted--Soames to the city,Bellby to his chambers,Winifred in a hansom to Park Lane to let her mother know how she had fared.The issue had been so satisfactory on the whole that it was considered advisable to tell James,who never failed to say day after day that he didn't know about Winifred's affair,he couldn't tell.As his sands ran out;the importance of mundane matters became increasingly grave to him,as if he were feeling:'I must make the most of it,and worry well;I shall soon have nothing to worry about.'
He received the report grudgingly.It was a new-fangled way of going about things,and he didn't know!But he gave Winifred a cheque,saying:
"I expect you'll have a lot of expense.That's a new hat you've got on.Why doesn't Val come and see us?"Winifred promised to bring him to dinner soon.And,going home,she sought her bedroom where she could be alone.Now that her husband had been ordered back into her custody with a view to putting him away from her for ever,she would try once more to find out from her sore and lonely heart what she really wanted.