elor man he had got into a trick of talking to himself.

"I did hear that boy of the O'Garas' was sweet on her," he said. "My
word, what a pretty kettle of fish!"

"I beg your pardon, doctor?" said Patsy.

"Oh nothing, nothing. I was wool-gathering. Come in and wait; I'll
have the medicine ready in less than no time."

CHAPTER XXV

IN WHICH TERRY FINDS A DEAD MAN

Terry arrived a little before midnight, having made the difficult
cross-country journey from the Curragh, looking so troubled and unhappy
that his mother's heart was soft over him as when he was the little boy
she remembered.

He bent his six foot of height to kiss her, and his voice was husky as
he asked how his father was.

"He is asleep, thank God," she answered. "He came to himself for a
little time while I was out this afternoon. Reilly, who is invaluable,
a real staff, tells me it is healthy sleep now, not unconsciousness."

"Imagine Reilly!" said Terry, with a sigh of immense relief. "You poor
darling! to think of your having to bear it alone! The Colonel was so
decent about leave. He told me not to come back till you could do
without me. A son's not as good as a daughter. Still, I'm better than
nothing, aren't I, darling?"

"You are better than any one," his mother said, caressing his smooth
young cheeks.

"You should have wired for Eileen. What's that selfish minx doing?
Making up with the lakh of rupees, I suppose?"

"Do you know I never remembered Eileen," she said, and laughed for the
first time since the accident. Her heart had lifted suddenly with an
irrational, joyful hope.

She wanted to get Terry to bed and a night's sleep before he knew
anything about Stella's illness. In the morning the girl might be
better. Terry looked very weary. He explained to her with a half-shy
laugh what terrible imaginings had been his companions on the railway
journey.

"By Jove, darling," he said, "I never want an experience like it again.
And how the train dragged! I felt like trying to push it along with
something inside me all the time till I was as tired as though I had
been really pushing it. At one place the train stopped in the middle
of a bog--some one had pulled the communication cord--and the guard and
the fireman ran along the carriages, using frightful language, only to
pull out seven drunken men going home from a fair, in charge of one
small boy who was sober. He was explaining that he couldn't wake them
up a