osa, I was delirious. And that is just why I
wished to see you--in order to explain to you that that was nonsense.
You must forget what I said. Remember only that I love you."

("So Emmeline was right," I reflected.)

Abruptly Rosa stood up.

"You must not love me, Alresca," she said in a shaking voice. "You ask
me to forget something; I will try. You, too, must forget
something--your love."

"But last night," he cried, in accents of an almost intolerable
pathos--"last night, when I hinted--you did not--did not speak like
this, Rosetta."

I rose. I had surely no alternative but to separate them. If I allowed
the interview to be prolonged the consequences to my patient might be
extremely serious. Yet again I hesitated. It was the sound of Rosa's
sobbing that arrested me.

Once more she dropped to her knees.

"Alresca!" she moaned.

He seized her hand and kissed it.

And then I came forward, summoning all my courage to assert the
doctor's authority. And in the same instant Alresca's features, which
had been the image of intense joy, wholly changed their expression,
and were transformed into the embodiment of fear. With a look of
frightful terror he pointed with one white hand to the blank wall
opposite. He tried to sit up, but the splint prevented him. Then his
head fell back.

"It is there!" he moaned. "Fatal! My Rosa--"

The words died in his mouth, and he swooned.

As for Rosetta Rosa, I led her from the room.

CHAPTER IV

ROSA'S SUMMONS

Everyone knows the Gold Rooms at the Grand Babylon on the Embankment.
They are immense, splendid, and gorgeous; they possess more gold leaf
to the square inch than any music-hall in London. They were designed
to throw the best possible light on humanity in the mass, to
illuminate effectively not only the shoulders of women, but also the
sombreness of men's attire. Not a tint on their walls that has not
been profoundly studied and mixed and laid with a view to the great
aim. Wherefore, when the electric clusters glow in the ceiling, and
the "after-dinner" band (that unique corporation of British citizens
disguised as wild Hungarians) breathes and pants out its after-dinner
melodies from the raised platform in the main salon, people regard
this coup d'oeil with awe, and feel glad that they are in the dazzling
picture, and even the failures who are there imagine that they have
succeeded. Wherefore, also, the Gold Rooms of the Grand Babylon are
expensive, and