ing, and a spark of unreasoning
jealousy shot through the mist of her tears.

"I don't _want_ you to take my place with him. He's _mine_!"

"Then don't ask me to go to him now."

The counter-stroke was unanswerable. Evelyn made a genuine attempt to
still the uncontrolled quivering of her body, and actually got upon
her feet. But abandonment to misery had so shaken her that, even as
Honor put out a steadying hand, she fell back among her pillows with a
choking sob.

"It's no use," she moaned. "Go, Honor--go _now_; and say I--I'm
coming."

The girl set her teeth hard. A strange light gleamed in the blue of
her eyes. She moved across to the washing-stand and poured out a stiff
dose of sal volatile.

"Here, Evelyn," she said, all the tenderness gone from her voice,
"drink this at once. Then get up as soon as you can, and make yourself
presentable. I shall not be gone many minutes, and you _must_ be ready
to go to him the instant I come back."

Evelyn choked and spluttered over the burning mixture.

"Oh, thank you, Honor, thank you. Only--don't look so angry about it,
please."

"I _am_ angry--I am bitterly angry," Honor answered with sudden
vehemence, and went quickly from the room.

Once outside, she paused; her whole soul uplifted in a wordless prayer
for strength and self-control. It seemed to her that Evelyn's
reception of Theo went far to make her own departure a matter of
imperative necessity, cruelly hard though it was to risk being
misjudged at such a crisis.

With heart and spirit braced for her ordeal, she entered the room.

But at sight of him, who was the incarnation of life, cheerfulness,
and vigour, lying stricken in heart and body, her courage deserted
her, and she could neither speak nor move. On the lower end of the
long chair Rob nestled in an attitude of perplexed watchfulness;
satisfaction and bewilderment contending for the mastery over his
faithful soul; and Desmond's right arm supported his stunned and
aching head.

As Honor paused on the threshold, he stirred uneasily. "That you,
Ladybird?" he asked; and his tone, if listless, was unmistakably
tender.

"No, Theo. It is I--Honor," the girl answered in a low voice without
moving forward.

"Where's Evelyn, then?"

"She's coming soon--very soon."

"What's gone wrong with her? Has she fainted? You might come a little
closer to a fellow, Honor. I feel cut off from everything and every
one, with this damnable green wall in front of m