as always been so
anxious to help me, that I am sure he would be glad if I brought the
minister to the hospital, or to his apartments in the hotel if he has
been taken there, and the marriage would be solemnized without causing
him the slightest inconvenience or worry, no matter how ill he may be,
so long as he is conscious."

Curtis thought he had never before heard the English language twisted
into such enigmas as these few simple words presented. It was an
outrage to credit this well-mannered and delightful girl with the
cold-blooded callousness which seemed to reveal itself in every
syllable. That she was blithely unaware of this element in her excited
utterances was shown by her eager face and animated attitude. She had
risen from the chair in which she had seated herself when they entered
the room, and obviously expected him to lose no time in conducting her
to the bedside of Jean de Courtois.

"Pray sit down again, Miss Grandison," said Curtis, and his voice
assumed a sterner, more commanding note, though he, too, stood up, and
approached nearer, lest she might collapse in a faint and fall before
he could save her. "I fear I have blundered woefully in assuming a
role for which I am ill-fitted, but I must make you realize somehow
that your marriage is irrevocably--postponed."

"Why?"

A slight color tinged her cheeks; she was actually becoming annoyed
with him!

"I will tell you when you are seated."

"What nonsense! One can hear as well standing."

Nevertheless, she obeyed. People generally did obey when Curtis spoke
in that insistent manner.

Now he was quite near her, and his tone grew gentle again.

"The accident from which Monsieur de Courtois suffered was fatal," he
said.

She looked at him, wide-eyed, alarmed, but assuredly not with the
soul-sickened terror of a woman who loves when she hears that her lover
is dead.

"Do you mean that he has been killed?" she whispered.

"Yes."

"Oh, poor fellow. I have lost my only friend, and now, indeed, I am
the most wretched girl in all the world."

Flinging her clasped arms on the table, she hid her face in them, and
sobbed as though her heart would break. Curtis placed a hand on her
shoulder, and strove to calm her with such commonplace phrases as his
dazed brain could dictate, but she wept bitterly, just as a child might
weep if disappointed about the non-fulfillment of some object on which
its heart was set.

"It sounds horrid--I know-