'You know there can't be the smallest doubt that Sarratt is dead! He died in some German hospital, and the news has never come through.'
'The Red Cross people at Geneva declare that if he had died in hospital they would know. The identification disks are returned to them--so they say--with remarkable care.'
'Well then, he died on the field, and the Germans buried him.'
'In which case the poor soul will know nothing--ever,' said Hester sadly. 'But, of course, she believes he is a prisoner.'
'My dear Hester, if he were, we should certainly have heard! Enquiries are now much more thorough, and the results much more accurate, than they were a year ago.'
'Loss of memory?--shell-shock?' said Hester vaguely.
'They don't do away with your disk, and your regimental marks, etc. Whatever may happen to a private, an officer doesn't slip through and vanish like this, if he is still alive. The thing is perfectly clear.'
Hester shook her head without speaking. She was just as thoroughly convinced as Farrell that Nelly was a widow; but she did not see how anybody could proclaim it before Nelly did.
'I wonder how long it will take to convince her,' said Farrell, after a pause.
'Well, I suppose when peace comes, if there's no news then, she will have to give it up. By the way, when may one--legally--presume that one's husband is dead?' asked Hester, suddenly lifting her shrewd grey eyes to the face of her visitor.
'It used to be seven years. But I believe now you can go to the Courts--'
'If a woman wants to re-marry? Well that, of course, Nelly Sarratt will never do!'
'My dear Hester, what nonsense!' said Farrell, vehemently. 'Of course she'll marry again. What is she?--twenty-one? It would be a sin and a shame.'
'I only meant she would never take any steps of her own will to separate herself from Sarratt.'
'Women look at things far too sentimentally!' exclaimed Farrell, 'and they just spoil their lives. However, neither you nor I can prophesy anything. Time works wonders; and if he didn't, we should all be wrecks and lunatics!'
Hester said nothing. She was conscious of suppressed excitement in the man before her. Farrell watched her knitting fingers for a little, and then remarked:--
'But of course at present what has to be done, is to improve her health, and distract her thoughts.'