They grew less and less afraid of looking at one another as they felt that darkened room further and further behind them. What about Hilda? No hope of hiding their secret from those sharp eyes. But Hilda would approve. They could trust Hilda. The child might prove helpful.!

He ceased speaking. No one seemed inclined to break the silence. “I will stay with her for a little while,” she said. “Till I feel there is no more need. Then I must get back to work.”

“We must stir the people up about this food business,” he said, plunging at once into his subject. “Phillips is quite right. It overshadows everything. We must make the country self-supporting. It can be done and must. If a war were to be sprung upon us we could be starved out in a month. Our navy, in face of these new submarines, is no longer able to secure us. France is working day and night upon them. It may be a bogey, or it may not. If it isn’t, she would have us at her mercy; and it’s too big a risk to run. You live in the same house with him, don’t you? Do you often see him?” The nurse was standing by the window. She turned sharply on Joan’s entrance. Joan slipped the box into her hands. “If the world were properly stage-managed, that’s what you ought to be,” he said, “the wife of a Prime Minister. I can see you giving such an excellent performance.”