t under his
stillness for the doctor's coming. She remembered that old trick of
his. She had never before associated it with any emotion.

Suddenly he turned his head as if he had felt her scrutiny, and looked
straight into her eyes. It was only for a moment. His glance flickered
beyond her with scarcely a pause. Yet it was to her as if by that
swift look he had spoken, had for the first time made deep and
passionate protest against her bitter judgment of him, had as it were
shown her in a single flash the human heart beneath the jester's garb.

And again very deep down in her soul there stirred that blind,
unconscious entity, of the existence of which she herself had so vague
a knowledge, feeling upwards, groping outwards, to the light.

There came upon her a sudden curious sense of consternation--a feeling
as of a mental earthquake when the very foundations of the soul
are shaken. Had she conceivably been mistaken in him? With all her
knowledge of him, had she by some strange mischance--some maddening,
some inexplicable misapprehension--failed utterly and miserably to see
this man as he really was?

For the first time the question sprang up within her. And she found no
answer to it--only that breathless, blank dismay.

Softly Nick's voice broke in upon her seething doubt. He had laid Olga
back upon the pillow.

"The doctor is here. Do you mind staying with her while I go?"

"You'll come back, Nick?" the child urged, in her painful whisper.

"Yes, I'll come back," he promised. "Honest Injun!"

He touched her cheek lightly at parting, and Olga caught the caressing
hand and pressed it against her burning lips. Muriel saw his face
as he turned from the bed. It was all softened and quivering with
emotion.

CHAPTER XXXIV

AT THE GATE OF DEATH

In the morning they knew the worst. Olga had scarlet fever.

The doctor imparted the news to Nick and Muriel standing outside
the door of the sick-room. Nick's reception of it was by no
means characteristic. For the first time in her life Muriel saw
consternation undisguised upon the yellow face.

"Great Jupiter!" he said. "What a criminal ass I am!"

At another moment she could have laughed at the tragic force of his
self-arraignment. Even as it was, she barely repressed a smile as she
set his mind at rest. She needed no explanation. It was easy enough to
follow the trend of his thoughts just then.

"If you are thinking of me," she said, "I have had it."