:

"Do you think Doctor Fleming is a man like that? And don't you think he
will be only too glad to send you home when you are able for the
journey? Your wisest way will be to trust it all to him."

"At least you will say nothing against it?"

"I shall have nothing to say about it--nothing." She spoke calmly and
was quite unmoved, as far as he could see. But she was afraid. She was
saying in her heart that her time was coming. Beyond the day! Surely
she must look beyond the day. But not now. Not this moment. Even in
her dismay she thought of him, and "pitied" him, as he had said.

"You are wearing yourself out," said she gently. "The doctor will not
think well of what you have to say, if you are tired and feverish. Lie
quiet, and rest till he come."

He did not answer her except with his eager appealing eyes, which she
would not meet. She sat by the window sewing steadily on, till the
doctor's step came to the door.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

"Look not at thine own peace, but look beyond,
And take the Cross for glory and for guide."

It was Allison's way when the doctor came, to answer such questions as
he had to ask, and then to call Dickson, and betake herself to the long
ward beyond. But to-day Brownrig's first words were:

"I have something to say to you, doctor, and I wish my wife to hear it.
Bide ye still, Allison."

"My wife!" Neither the doctor nor Allison had ever heard him utter the
word before. Allison took her usual seat by the window, and the doctor
placed himself beside the bed. It was the same story over again which
Brownrig had to tell. He was going home to his own house. It might be
to die, and it might not. But whether he were to live or die, home he
must go. He had something to do which could only be done there. The
doctors had owned that their skill could do nothing more for him. His
cure, if he were to be cured, must be left to time. He would never
improve in the dreary dullness of the place, and there were many reasons
why he should be determined to go--reasons which would affect other folk
as well as himself; go he must, and the sooner the better. He said it
all quietly enough, speaking reasonably, but with decision. Doctor
Fleming listened in silence, and did not answer immediately. To himself
he was saying, that it might be well to let the man have his way. He
did not think it would make much difference in the end. There was a
chance for him--not for