e fastidiously. Between two enormous outblowings of smoke he
said: "Well, I'm dashed! So Charlie's come with her! I hope the kid'll
soon be better... I should have been back long ago, only I took Mrs
Chris Hamson home."

"Who's Mrs Chris Hamson?"

"Don't you know her? She's a ripping woman."

He stood there in all the splendour of thirty years, with more than
Charlie's naivete, politely trying to enter into the life of the
household, but failing to do so because of his preoccupation with the
rippingness of Mrs Chris Hamson. The sight of him gave pleasure to
Edwin. It did not occur to him to charge the young man with being
callous.

When the cigarette was burnt, Johnnie said--

"Well, I think I shall leave seeing Charlie till breakfast."

And he went to bed. On reaching the first-floor corridor he wished that
he had gone to bed half a minute sooner; for in the corridor he
encountered Janet, who had risen and was returning to her post; and
Janet's face, though she meant it not, was an accusation. Four o'clock
had struck.

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

FIVE.

It was nearly half-past seven before Edwin left the house. In the
meantime he had seen Charlie briefly twice, and Janet once, but he had
not revisited the sick-room nor seen Hilda again. The boy's condition
was scarcely altered; if there was any change, it was for the better.

Dawn had broken. The fog was gone, but a faint mist hung in the trees
over the damp lawn. The air was piercingly chill. Yawning and glancing
idly about him, he perceived a curious object on the dividing wall. It
was the candlestick which he had left there on the previous night. The
candle was entirely consumed. "I may as well get over the wall," he
said to himself, and he scrambled up it with adventurous cheerfulness,
and took the candlestick with him; it was covered with drops of
moisture. He deposited it in the kitchen, where the servant was
cleaning the range. On the oak chest in the hall lay the "Manchester
Guardian," freshly arrived. He opened it with another heavy yawn. At
the head of one column he read, "Death of the Duke of Clarence," and at
the head of another, "Death of Cardinal Manning." The double news
shocked him strangely. He thought of what those days had been to others
beside himself. And he thought: "Supposing after all the kid doesn't
come through?"

VOLUME FOUR, CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

HER HEART