not to be reasoned with. While we were still vainly trying to
convince each other, Doctor Wybrow came in.

To my amazement he sided with Penrose.

"Oh, get up by all means," he said; "we will help you to dress." We took
him out of bed and put on his dressing-gown. He thanked us; and saying
he would complete his toilet by himself, sat down in an easy chair. In
another moment he was asleep again, so soundly asleep that we put him
back in his bed without waking him. Doctor Wybrow had foreseen this
result: he looked at the poor fellow's pale peaceful face with a kindly
smile.

"There is the treatment," he said, "that will set our patient on his
legs again. Sleeping, eating, and drinking--let that be his life for
some weeks to come, and he will be as good a man as ever. If your
homeward journey had been by land, Penrose would have died on the way. I
will take care of him while you are in Paris."

At the station I met Lord Loring. He understood that I too had received
bad news, and gave me a place in the _coupe_ carriage which had been
reserved for him. We had hardly taken our seats when we saw Father
Benwell among the travelers on the platform, accompanied by a
gray-haired gentleman who was a stranger to both of us. Lord Loring
dislikes strangers. Otherwise, I might have found myself traveling to
Paris with that detestable Jesuit for a companion.

Paris, May 3.--On our arrival at the hotel I was informed that no
message had yet been received from the Embassy.

We found Lady Loring alone at the breakfast-table, when we had rested
after our night journey.

"Romayne still lives," she said. "But his voice has sunk to a whisper,
and he is unable to breathe if he tries to rest in bed. Stella has gone
to the Embassy; she hopes to see him to-day for the second time."

"Only for the second time!" I exclaimed.

"You forget, Mr. Winterfield, that Romayne is a priest. He was only
consecrated on the customary condition of an absolute separation from
his wife. On her side--never let her know that I told you this--Stella
signed a formal document, sent from Rome, asserting that she consented
of her own free will to the separation. She was relieved from the
performance of another formality (which I need not mention
more particularly) by a special dispensation. Under these
circumstances--communicated to me while Stella and I have been together
in this house--the wife's presence at the bedside of her dying husband
is regarded by th