"Yes. But he won't leave till the last minute. He has chartered a special
to take him to Plymouth."

"He knows I can't go?" said Nan quickly.

"Oh, yes; the doctor told him that last night."

"What did he say? Was he angry?"

"He looked furious. But he didn't say anything, even in Dutch. I think
his feelings were beyond words," said Mona, with a little smile.

Nan asked no more, but when the doctor saw her a little later, he was
dissatisfied with her appearance, and scolded her for working herself
into a fever.

"There's no sense in fretting about it," he said. "The thing is done, and
can't be altered. I have no doubt your husband will be back again in a
few weeks to fetch you, and we will have you quite well again by then."

But Nan only shivered in response, as though she found this assurance
the reverse of comforting. The shock of the accident, succeeding the
incessant strain of the past few weeks, had completely broken down her
nerve, and no amount of reasoning could calm her.

When a message came from her husband an hour later, asking if she would
see him, she answered in the affirmative, but the bare prospect of the
interview threw her into a ferment of agitation.

She lay panting on her pillows like a frightened child when at length he
entered.

He came in very softly, but every pulse in her body leapt at his
approach. She could not utter a word in greeting.

He stood a moment in silence, looking down at her, then, stooping, he
took her free hand into his own.

"Are you better?" he asked, his deep voice hushed as if he were in
church.

She could not answer him for the fast beating of her heart. He waited a
little, then sat down by the bed, his great hand still holding her little
trembling one in a steady grasp.

"The doctor tells me," he said, "that it would not be safe for you to
travel at present, so I cannot of course, think of allowing you to do
so."

Nan's eyes opened very wide at this. It was an entirely novel idea that
this man should take upon himself to direct her movements. She drew a
deep breath, and found her voice.

"I should certainly not dream of attempting such a thing without the
doctor's permission."

His grave face did not alter. His eyes looked directly into hers and
it seemed to Nan for the first time that they held something of a
domineering expression.

She turned her head away with a quick frown. She also made a slight,
ineffectual effort to free her hand. But he d