Glyde, when she spoke to him on the subject, that he would himself
propose to send for a physician the moment he felt so much as the
shadow of a doubt crossing his own mind.

The only person among us who did not appear to be relieved by these
words was the Countess. She said to me privately, that she could not
feel easy about Miss Halcombe on Mr. Dawson's authority, and that she
should wait anxiously for her husband's opinion on his return. That
return, his letters informed her, would take place in three days' time.
The Count and Countess corresponded regularly every morning during his
lordship's absence. They were in that respect, as in all others, a
pattern to married people.

On the evening of the third day I noticed a change in Miss Halcombe,
which caused me serious apprehension. Mrs. Rubelle noticed it too. We
said nothing on the subject to Lady Glyde, who was then lying asleep,
completely overpowered by exhaustion, on the sofa in the sitting-room.

Mr. Dawson did not pay his evening visit till later than usual. As soon
as he set eyes on his patient I saw his face alter. He tried to hide
it, but he looked both confused and alarmed. A messenger was sent to
his residence for his medicine-chest, disinfecting preparations were
used in the room, and a bed was made up for him in the house by his own
directions. "Has the fever turned to infection?" I whispered to him.
"I am afraid it has," he answered; "we shall know better to-morrow
morning."

By Mr. Dawson's own directions Lady Glyde was kept in ignorance of this
change for the worse. He himself absolutely forbade her, on account of
her health, to join us in the bedroom that night. She tried to
resist--there was a sad scene--but he had his medical authority to
support him, and he carried his point.

The next morning one of the men-servants was sent to London at eleven
o'clock, with a letter to a physician in town, and with orders to bring
the new doctor back with him by the earliest possible train. Half an
hour after the messenger had gone the Count returned to Blackwater Park.

The Countess, on her own responsibility, immediately brought him in to
see the patient. There was no impropriety that I could discover in her
taking this course. His lordship was a married man, he was old enough
to be Miss Halcombe's father, and he saw her in the presence of a
female relative, Lady Glyde's aunt. Mr. Dawson nevertheless protested
against his presence in the