put in Hephzy, sharply.

"She's in 'er room ma'am. Dressed she is; she would dress, knowin' of
your comin', though I told 'er she shouldn't. She's dressed, but she's
lyin' down. She would 'ave tried to sit hup, but THAT I wouldn't 'ave,
ma'am. 'Now, dearie,' I told 'er--"

But I would not hear any more. As for Hephzy she was in the dingy front
hall already.

"Shall we go up?" I asked, impatiently.

"Of COURSE you're to go hup. She's a-waitin' for you. But sir--sir," she
caught my sleeve; "if you think she's goin' to be ill and needin' the
doctor, just pass the word to me. A doctor she shall 'ave, the best
there is in London. All I ask you is to pay--"

I heard no more. Hephzy was on her way up the stairs and I followed. The
door of the first floor back was closed. I rapped upon it.

"Come in," said the voice I remembered, but now it sounded weaker than
before.

Hephzy looked at me. I nodded.

"You go first," I whispered. "You can call me when you are ready."

Hephzy opened the door and entered the room. I closed the door behind
her.

Silence for what seemed a long, long time. Then the door opened again
and Hephzy appeared. Her cheeks were wet with tears. She put her arms
about my neck.

"Oh, Hosy," she whispered, "she's real sick. And--and--Oh, Hosy, how
COULD you see her and not see! She's the very image of Ardelia. The very
image! Come."

I followed her into the room. It was no brighter now, in the middle of
a--for London--bright forenoon, than it had been on my previous visit.
Just as dingy and forbidding and forlorn as ever. But now there was no
defiant figure erect to meet me. The figure was lying upon the bed, and
the pale cheeks of yesterday were flushed with fever. Miss Morley had
looked far from well when I first saw her; now she looked very ill
indeed.

She acknowledged my good-morning with a distant bow. Her illness had not
quenched her spirit, that was plain. She attempted to rise, but Hephzy
gently pushed her back upon the pillow.

"You stay right there," she urged. "Stay right there. We can talk just
as well, and Mr. Knowles won't mind; will you, Hosy."

I stammered something or other. My errand, difficult as it had been
from the first, now seemed impossible. I had come there to say certain
things--I had made up my mind to say them; but how was I to say such
things to a girl as ill as this one was. I would not have said them to
Strickland Morley himself, under such circumstances.

"I-