"Why, of course; too bad - too bad."
"But I'm certainly no worse." Mrs. Boynton added with a slow reptilian smile: "Nadine, here, takes good care of me; don't you, Nadine?"
"I do my best." Her voice was expressionless.
"Why, I'll bet you do," said the stranger heartily. "Well, Lennox, and what do you think of King David's city?"
"Oh, I don't know." Lennox spoke apathetically - without interest.
"Find it kind of disappointing, do you?
I'll confess it struck me that way at first.
But perhaps you haven't been around much yet?"
Carol Boynton said: "We can't do very much because of Mother."
Mrs. Boynton explained: "A couple of hours' sightseeing is about all I can manage every day."
The stranger said heartily: "I think it's wonderful you manage to do all you do, Mrs. Boynton."
Mrs. Boynton gave a slow wheezy chuckle; it had an almost gloating sound.
"I don't give in to my body!
It's the mind that matters! Yes, it's the mind..." Her voice died away.
Gerard saw Raymond Boynton give a nervous jerk.
"Have you been to the Weeping Wall yet, Mr. Cope?" he asked.
"Why, yes, that was one of the first places I visited.
I hope to have done Jerusalem thoroughly in a couple more days and I'm letting them get me out an itinerary at Cook's so as to do the Holy Land thoroughly - Bethlehem, Nazareth, Tiberias, the Sea of Galilee. It's all going to be mighty interesting.
Then there's Jerash; there are some very interesting ruins there - Roman, you know.
And I'd very much like to have a look at the Rose Red City of Petra, a most remarkable natural phenomenon, I believe that is, and right off the beaten track; but it takes the best part of a week to get there and back and do it properly."
Carol said: "I'd love to go there. It sounds marvelous."
"Why I should say it was definitely worth seeing - yes, definitely worth seeing." Mr. Cope paused, shot a somewhat dubious glance at Mrs. Boynton, and then went on in a voice that to the listening Frenchman was palpably uncertain: "I wonder now if I couldn't persuade some of you people to come with me?
Naturally I know you couldn't manage it, Mrs. Boynton, and naturally some of your family would want to remain with you; but if you were to divide forces, so to speak - "
He paused. Gerard heard the even click of Mrs. Boynton's knitting needles.
Then she said: "I don't think we'd care to divide up. We're a very homey group." She looked up.
"Well, children, what do you say?"
There was a queer ring in her voice.
The answers came promptly:
"No, Mother."
"Oh, no."
"No, of course not."
Mrs. Boynton said, smiling that very odd smile of hers:
"You see - they won't leave me.
What about you, Nadine?
You didn't say anything."
"No, thank you, Mother, not unless Lennox cares about it."
Mrs. Boynton turned her head slowly towards her son.
"Well, Lennox, what about it; why don't you and Nadine go?
She seems to want to."
He started. Looked up.
"I - well - no, I - I think we'd better all stay together."
Mr. Cope said genially: "Well, you are a devoted family!" But something in his geniality rang a little hollow and forced.
"We keep to ourselves," said Mrs. Boynton. She began to wind up her ball of wool. "By the way, Raymond, who was that young woman who spoke to you just now?" Raymond started nervously.
He flushed, then went white.
"I - I don't know her name.
She - she was on the train the other night."
Mrs. Boynton began slowly to try and heave herself out of her chair.
"I don't think we'll have much to do with her," she said.
Nadine rose and assisted the old woman to struggle out of her chair.
She did it with a professional deftness that attracted Gerard's attention.