“What is it, Papa? What is the – matter?” she asked.
Then, as he did not answer, she asked,
“You are not – going back to – England?”
“No, not at the moment, but there is something I have to tell you.”
She waited, but he was looking round the small sitting room with its Crucifix on the wall and a prie-Dieu in front of it.
“I cannot talk to you here,” he said. “I have asked the Mother Superior if I can take you out to luncheon at a nearby restaurant and she has agreed.”
Daniela’s eyes lit up.
“Oh, Papa, how exciting! I shall feel that I am playing truant, but it will be thrilling to be with you.”
“Hurry and put on your bonnet,” her father said sharply.
She ran off to obey him, but she knew as she stepped into his carriage, which was waiting outside, that there was something very wro
