me: "Shall--I--die?"

"I hope not."

"Sure?"

"No."

He looked round him again. This time his eyes rested on the trainer.
Perry came forward.

"What can I do for you, Sir?"

The reply came slowly as before. "My--coat--pocket."

"This one, Sir?"

"No."

"This?"

"Yes. Book."

The trainer felt in the pocket, and produced a betting-book.

"What's to be done with this. Sir?"

"Read."

The trainer held the book before him; open at the last two pages on
which entries had been made. He rolled his head impatiently from side to
side of the sofa pillow. It was plain that he was not yet sufficiently
recovered to be able to read what he had written.

"Shall I read for you, Sir?"

"Yes."

The trainer read three entries, one after another, without result; they
had all been honestly settled. At the fourth the prostrate man said,
"Stop!" This was the first of the entries which still depended on a
future event. It recorded the wager laid at Windygates, when Geoffrey
had backed himself (in defiance of the surgeon's opinion) to row in the
University boat-race next spring--and had forced Arnold Brinkworth to
bet against him.

"Well, Sir? What's to be done about this?"

He collected his strength for the effort; and answered by a word at a
time.

"Write--brother--Julius. Pay--Arnold--wins."

His lifted hand, solemnly emphasizing what he said, dropped at his side.
He closed his eyes; and fell into a heavy stertorous sleep. Give him his
due. Scoundrel as he was, give him his due. The awful moment, when his
life was trembling in the balance, found him true to the last living
faith left among the men of his tribe and time--the faith of the
betting-book.

Sir Patrick and Mr. Speedwell quitted the race-ground together; Geoffrey
having been previously removed to his lodgings hard by. They met Arnold
Brinkworth at the gate. He had, by his own desire, kept out of view
among the crowd; and he decided on walking back by himself. The
separation from Blanche had changed him in all his habits. He asked but
two favors during the interval which was to elapse before he saw his
wife again--to be allowed to bear it in his own way, and to be left
alone.

Relieved of the oppression which had kept him silent while the race was
in progress, Sir Patrick put a question to the surgeon as they drove
home, which had been in his mind from the moment when Geoffrey had lost
the day.

"I hardly understand the anxiety you showed abou