id it was in an unsatisfactory way.

"Oh, she spoke all right," he said.

"You may just as well tell me the truth."

"The speech was a good speech, I'll not deny that, a thundering good
speech."

The nurse came at me again and retrieved her abominable thermometer.
She twisted it about in the light of the lamp and then whispered to
Titherington.

"Don't shuffle," I said to him. "I can see perfectly well that you're
keeping something back from me. Did McMeekin insult Miss Beresford in
any way? For if he did----"

"Not at all," said Titherington. "But I've been talking long enough.
I'll tell you all the rest to-morrow."

Without giving me a chance of protesting he left the room. I felt that
I was going to break down again; but I restrained myself and told the
nurse plainly what I thought of her.

"I don't know," I said, "whether it is in accordance with the etiquette
of your profession to thwart the wishes of a dying man, but that's what
you've just done. You know perfectly well that I shall not be alive
to-morrow morning and you could see that the only thing I really wanted
was to hear something about the meeting. Even a murderer is given some
indulgence on the morning of his execution. But just because I have,
through no fault of my own, contracted a disease which neither you nor
McMeekin know how to cure, I am not allowed to ask a simple question.
You may think, I have no doubt you do think, that you have acted with
firmness and tact. In reality you have been guilty of blood-curdling
cruelty of a kind probably unmatched in the annals of the Spanish
Inquisition."

I think my words produced a good deal of effect on her. She did not
attempt to make any answer; but she covered up my shoulder with the
bedclothes. I shook them off again at once and scowled at her with such
bitterness that she left my bedside and sat down near the fire. I saw
that she was watching me, so again pretended to go to sleep.

McMeekin came to see me next morning, and had the effrontery to
repeat the statement that I was better. I was not, and I told him so
distinctly. After he was gone Titherington came with a large bag in his
hand. He sent the nurse out of the room and unpacked the bag. He took
out of it a dozen small bottles of champagne. He locked the door and
then we drank one of the bottles between us. Titherington used my
medicine glass. I had the tumbler off the wash-hand-stand. The nurse
knocked at the door before we had finishe