Chapter 3“What shall I do, Nerina?” Elizabeth asked for the thousandth time. “What shall I do?”
She knew that there could be no reply to her question and yet she repeated it again and again as if by some miracle Nerina might find an answer.
All through the night they had talked together, Elizabeth at first crying bitterly and then later lying white-faced and tearless, staring into the darkness, her voice gradually dying away into silence until at last the only thing she would whisper at intermittent intervals was,
“What shall I do? What shall I do?”
It did indeed seem to Nerina as if there was nothing that Elizabeth could do, nothing that any of them could do and yet she refused to allow herself to accept what appeared to be inevitable.
Seeing Elizabeth’s distress, hearing her bitter
