s love does laugh! If I am not
crying over his grave, Everard? Oh!'

The earl smoothed her forehead. All her suspicions were rekindled.
'Truth! truth! give me truth. Let me know what world I am in.'

'My dear, a ship's not lost because she's caught in a squall; nor a man
buffeting the waves for an hour. He's all right: he keeps up.'

'He is delirious? I ask you--I have fancied I heard him.'

Lord Romfrey puffed from his nostrils: but in affecting to blow to the
winds her foolish woman's wildness of fancy, his mind rested on Nevil,
and he said: 'Poor boy! It seems he's chattering hundreds to the
minute.'

His wife's looks alarmed him after he had said it, and he was for toning
it and modifying it, when she gasped to him to help her to her feet;
and standing up, she exclaimed: 'O heaven! now I hear you; now I know he
lives. See how much better it is for me to know the real truth. It takes
me to his bedside. Ignorance and suspense have been poison. I have been
washed about like a dead body. Let me read all my letters now. Nothing
will harm me now. You will do your best for me, my husband, will you
not?' She tore at her dress at her throat for coolness, panting and
smiling. 'For me--us--yours--ours! Give me my letters, lunch with me,
and start for Bevisham. Now you see how good it is for me to hear the
very truth, you will give me your own report, and I shall absolutely
trust in it, and go down with it if it's false! But you see I am
perfectly strong for the truth. It must be you or I to go. I burn to go;
but your going will satisfy me. If you look on him, I look. I feel as if
I had been nailed down in a coffin, and have got fresh air. I pledge you
my word, sir, my honour, my dear husband, that I will think first of my
duty. I know it would be Nevil's wish. He has not quite forgiven me--he
thought me ambitious--ah! stop: he said that the birth of our child
would give him greater happiness than he had known for years: he begged
me to persuade you to call a boy Nevil Beauchamp, and a girl Renee. He
has never believed in his own long living.'

Rosamund refreshed her lord's heart by smiling archly as she said: 'The
boy to be educated to take the side of the people, of course! The girl
is to learn a profession.'

'Ha! bless the fellow!' Lord Romfrey interjected. 'Well, I might go
there for an hour. Promise me, no fretting! You have hollows in your
cheeks, and your underlip hangs: I don't like it. I haven't seen that
befo