arden. The flame of the
candle stood upright in the fog. He blundered along to the dividing
wall, placed the candle on the top of it, and managed to climb over.
Leaving the candle on the wall to guide his return, he approached the
house, which showed gleams at several windows, and rang the bell. And
in fact it was Charlie Orgreave himself who opened the door. And a
lantern, stuck carelessly on the edge of a chair, was still burning in
the hall.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TWO.

In a moment he had learnt the chief facts. Hilda had gone up to London,
dragged Charlie out of Ealing, and brought him down with her to watch
over her child. Once more she had done something which nobody could
have foreseen. The train--not the London express, but the loop--was
late. The pair had arrived about half-past ten, and a little later Dr
Stirling had fulfilled his promise to look in if he could. The two
doctors had conferred across the child's bed, and had found themselves
substantially in agreement. Moreover, the child was if anything
somewhat better. The Scotsman had gone. Charles and Hilda had eaten.
Hilda meant to sit up, and had insisted that Janet should go to bed; it
appeared that Janet had rested but not slept in the afternoon.

Charlie took Edwin into the small breakfast-room, where Osmond Orgreave
was waiting, and the three men continued to discuss the situation. They
were all of them too excited to sit down, though Osmond and--in a less
degree--Charlie affected the tranquillity of high philosophers. At
first Edwin knew scarcely what he did. His speech and gestures were not
the result of conscious volition. He seemed suddenly to have two
individualities, and the new one, which was the more intimate one,
watched the other as in a dim-lighted dream... She was there in a room
above! She had come in response to the telegram signed `Edwin!' Last
night she was far away. Tonight she was in the very house with him.
Miracle! He asked himself: "Why should I get myself into this state
simply because she is here? It would have been mighty strange if she
had not come. I must take myself in hand better than this. I mustn't
behave like a blooming girl." He frowned and coughed.

"Well," said Osmond Orgreave to his son, thrusting out his coat-tails
with his hands towards the fire, and swaying slightly to and fro on his
heels and toes, "so you've had your consultation, y