fled forward, leaning on a shaking cane; his figure, after all
its Years of proud soldierliness, had grown stooping at last, and his
untrimmed white hair straggled over the back of his collar. He looked
old--old and divested of the world--as he crept toward his daughter's
room. Her voice was stronger, for the waiting group heard a low cry of
tenderness and welcome as the old man reached the open doorway. Then the
door was closed.

Fanny touched her nephew's arm. "George, you must need something to
eat--I know she'd want you to. I've had things ready: I knew she'd want
me to. You'd better go down to the dining room: there's plenty on the
table, waiting for you. She'd want you to eat something."

He turned a ghastly face to her, it was so panic-stricken. "I don't
want anything to eat!" he said savagely. And he began to pace the floor,
taking care not to go near Isabel's door, and that his footsteps were
muffled by the long, thick hall rug. After a while he went to where
Amberson, with folded arms and bowed head, had seated himself near the
front window. "Uncle George," he said hoarsely. "I didn't--"

"Well?"

"Oh, my God, I didn't think this thing the matter with her could ever be
serious! I--" He gasped. "When that doctor I had meet us at the boat--"
He could not go on.

Amberson only nodded his head, and did not otherwise change his
attitude.

Isabel lived through the night. At eleven O'clock Fanny came timidly to
George in his room. "Eugene is here," she whispered. "He's downstairs.
He wants--" She gulped. "He wants to know if he can't see her. I didn't
know what to say. I said I'd see. I didn't know--the doctor said--"

"The doctor said we 'must keep her peaceful,'" George said sharply. "Do
you think that man's coming would be very soothing? My God! if it hadn't
been for him this mightn't have happened: we could have gone on living
here quietly, and--why, it would be like taking a stranger into her
room! She hasn't even spoken of him more than twice in all the time
we've been away. Doesn't he know how sick she is? You tell him the
doctor said she had to be quiet and peaceful. That's what he did say,
isn't it?"

Fanny acquiesced tearfully. "I'll tell him. I'll tell him the doctor
said she was to be kept very quiet. I--I didn't know--" And she pottered
out.

An hour later the nurse appeared in George's doorway; she came
noiselessly, and his back was toward her; but he jumped as if he had
been shot, and his j