d senseless. There was a deep flush
on one side of his face, one corner of his mouth was slightly drawn, and
one eyelid drooped. He was paralysed down his left side.

His lips moved mechanically as he breathed, and his breath came with a
deep grating sound. His left arm was stretched outside, upon the blanket.
A nurse stood at the head of the bed. She moved as Anne entered and gave
place to her. Anne put out her hand and touched his arm, caressing it.

The nurse said, "There has been no change." She lifted his arm by the
wrist and laid it in his wife's hand that she might see that he was
paralysed.

And Anne sat still by the bedside, staring at her husband's face, and
holding his heavy arm in her hand, as if she could thus help him to bear
the weight of it.

Hannay gave one look at her as she sat there. He said something to the
nurse and went out of the room. The woman followed him.

After they went Anne bowed her head and laid it on the pillow beside her
husband's, with her cheek against his cheek. She stayed so for a moment.
Then she lifted her head and looked about her. Her eyes took note of
trifles. She saw that the blankets were drawn straight over his body, as
if over the body of a dead man. The pillow-cases and the end of the
sheet, which was turned down over the blankets, were clean and
creaseless.

He could not move. He was paralysed. They had not told her that.

She saw that he wore a clean white nightshirt of coarse cotton. It must
have been lent by one of the people of the hotel. His illness must have
come upon him last night, when he was still up and dressed. They must
have carried him in here, and laid him in the clean bed. Everything about
him was very white and clean. She was glad.

She sat there till the nurse came back again. She had to move away from
him then. It hurt her to see the woman bending over his bed, looking at
him, to see, her hands touching him.

A bell rang somewhere in the hotel. Hannay came in and told her that
there was luncheon in the sitting-room. She shook her head. He put his
hand on her shoulder and spoke to her as if she had been a child. She
must eat, he said; she would be no good if she did not eat. She got up
and followed him. She ate and drank whatever he gave her. Then she went
back to her husband, and watched beside him while the nurse went to her
meal. The terrible thing was that she could do nothing for him. She could
only wait and watch. The nurse came back in