yrza's eyelids, though as yet she could not sleep.
Foreseeing this, Mrs. Ormonde had brought a draught, which would be the
good ally of Nature striving for repose. Thyrza asked no question, but
drank what was offered like a child.

'Now you will soon rest, dear. I must not ask you to kiss me, Thyrza?'

The lips were offered. They were cold, for passion lay dead upon them.
She did not speak, but sank back with a sigh and closed her eyes.

Again at midnight Mrs. Ormonde entered. The small taper which burnt in
the room showed faintly the sleeping face. Standing by the bed, she
felt her heart so wrung with sorrow that she wept.

In the morning Thyrza declared that she did not suffer. She rose and
sat by the open window. She fancied she could hear the sea.

'You said you had more to tell me, Mrs. Ormonde,' she began, when the
latter sat silently by her.

'To speak with you and to try to help you, my child, that was all.'

'But you told me very little yesterday. I am not sure that I
understood. You need not be afraid to tell me anything. I can bear
anything.'

'Will you ask me what you wish to know, Thyrza?'

'You say you persuaded him--and yet that you said good of me.'

The other waited.

'Didn't he come from America, to see me?'

'He did.'

'You mean that he came because he thought it was right to. I
understand. And when you told him that I was not thinking of him,
he--he felt himself free?'

'Yes.'

'Do you think--is it likely that he will ever wish to see me now?'

'If he knew that you had suffered because he did not come, he would be
with you in a few hours.'

Thyrza gazed thoughtfully.

'And he would ask me to marry him?'

'Doubtless he would.'

'So when you persuaded him not to see me, he was glad to know that he
_need_ not come?'

It was a former question repeated in another way. Mrs. Ormonde kept
silence. It was several minutes before Thyrza spoke again.

'I don't know whether you will tell me, but did he think of any one
else as well as of me when he came back to England?'

'I am not sure, Thyrza.'

'Will you tell me what friends he has gone to see?'

'Their name is Newthorpe.'

'Miss Newthorpe--the same I once saw here?'

'Yes.'

'What is Miss Newthorpe's name, Mrs. Ormonde?'

'Annabel.'

Thyrza moved her lips as if they felt parched. She asked nothing
further, seemed indeed to forget that she had been conversing. She
watched the waving branches of a tree in the garden.