below rose to hers. She heard him moan; once, twice;
then his voice, thick and husky, called for water.

She listened. The faint cry rose again and again. She could not endure
it, and she got out of bed, put on her dressing gown, and slipped down
the stairs. She could hear the voice more plainly now, and the cry was
still, "Water! water!"

She opened the door, and, pausing a moment, her face crimson, stole
toward the bed. Molly was in her chair, with her head lolling over the
back, as if it were a guillotine, her huge mouth wide open, fast asleep.

Nell stood and looked down at the unconscious man. The dark-brown hair
was tangled, the white face drawn with pain, the lips dry with fever,
one hand, clenched, opening and shutting spasmodically, on the
counterpane.

That divine pity which only a woman can feel filled and overran her
heart. She poured some water into a glass and set it to his lips. He
could not drink lying down, and, with difficulty, she raised his head on
her bosom. He drank long and greedily; then, as she slowly--dare one
write "reluctantly"?--lowered his head to the pillow, he muttered:

"Thanks, thanks, Luce! That was good!"

CHAPTER III.

"Luce!"

It was a strange name--the name of a woman, of course. Nell wondered
whether it was his sister--or sweetheart? Perhaps it was his wife?

She waited for some minutes; then she woke Molly, and returned to her
own room.

Drake Vernon was unconscious for some days, and Nell often stole in and
stood beside the bed; sometimes she changed the ice bandages, or gave
him something to drink. He wandered and talked a great deal, but it was
incoherent talk, in which the names of the persons he whispered or
shouted were indistinguishable. On the fourth day he recovered
consciousness, but was terribly weak, and the doctor would not permit
Mrs. Lorton to enter the room.

He put his objection very cleverly.

"I have to think of you, my dear madame," he said. "I don't want two
patients on my hands in the same house. Talk him back into delirium!" he
added to himself.

All these days Mrs. Lorton continued to "hush," Nell went about with a
grave air of suspense, and Dick--it is not given to this historian to
describe the state of mind into which incessant repression drove that
youth.

On the sixth day, bored to death, and somewhat curious, he strolled into
the sick room. Drake Vernon, propped up by pillows, was partaking of
beef tea with every sign of di