, will you?" he said. "I think the boy would be just
about pleased to find you there. And you can depend on me to bring him
down to you as soon as he is able to bear it."

"You are very good," Avery said. "Yes, I will go."

But, as Crowther knew, in going she accepted the hardest part; and the
weeks that she then spent at Rodding Abbey waiting, waiting with a sick
anxiety, left upon her a mark which no time could ever erase.

When Crowther's message came to her at last, she was almost too crushed
to believe. Everything was in readiness, had been in readiness for weeks.
She had prepared in fevered haste, telling herself that any day might
bring him. But day had followed day, and the news had always been
depressing, first of weakness, fits of pain, terrible collapses, and
again difficult recoveries. Not once had she been told that any ground
had been gained.

And so when one day a telegram reached her earlier than usual, she
hardly dared to open it, so little did she anticipate that the news
could be good.

And even when the words stared her in the face: "Bringing Piers this
afternoon, Crowther," she could not for awhile believe them, and sought
instinctively to read into them some sinister meaning.

How she got through that day, she never afterwards knew. The hours
dragged leaden-footed. There was nothing to be done. She would not leave
the house lest by some impossible chance he might arrive before the
afternoon, but she felt that to stay within its walls was unendurable. So
for the most part she paced the terrace, breathing the dank, autumnal
air, picturing every phase of his journey, but never daring to picture
his arrival, praying piteous, disjointed prayers that only her own soul
seemed to hear.

The afternoon began to wane, and dusk came down. A small drifting rain
set in with the darkness, but she was not even aware of it till David,
very deferential and subdued, came to her and suggested that if she would
wait in the hall Sir Piers would see her at once, as he had taken the
liberty to turn on all the lights.

She knew that the old man made the suggestion out of the goodness of his
heart, and she fell in with it, realizing the wisdom of going within. But
when she found herself in the full glare of the great hall, alone with
those shining suits of armour that mounted guard on each side of the
fireplace, the awful suspense came upon her with a force that nothing
could alleviate. She turned with sick loathin