that Silvio slips in--and out--just when he shouldn't."

The morning wore slowly on. By ten o'clock Nurse Kennedy had so far
recovered that she was able to sit up and talk intelligibly. But she
was still hazy in her thoughts; and could not remember anything that
had happened on the previous night, after her taking her place by the
sick-bed. As yet she seemed neither to know nor care what had happened.

It was nearly eleven o'clock when Doctor Winchester returned with Sir
James Frere. Somehow I felt my heart sink when from the landing I saw
them in the hall below; I knew that Miss Trelawny was to have the pain
of telling yet another stranger of her ignorance of her father's life.

Sir James Frere was a man who commanded attention followed by respect.
He knew so thoroughly what he wanted himself, that he placed at once on
one side all wishes and ideas of less definite persons. The mere flash
of his piercing eyes, or the set of his resolute mouth, or the lowering
of his great eyebrows, seemed to compel immediate and willing obedience
to his wishes. Somehow, when we had all been introduced and he was
well amongst us, all sense of mystery seemed to melt away. It was with
a hopeful spirit that I saw him pass into the sick-room with Doctor
Winchester.

They remained in the room a long time; once they sent for the Nurse,
the new one, Sister Doris, but she did not remain long. Again they
both went into Nurse Kennedy's room. He sent out the nurse attendant
on her. Doctor Winchester told me afterward that Nurse Kennedy, though
she was ignorant of later matters, gave full and satisfactory answers
to all Doctor Frere's questions relating to her patient up to the time
she became unconscious. Then they went to the study, where they
remained so long, and their voices raised in heated discussion seemed
in such determined opposition, that I began to feel uneasy. As for
Miss Trelawny, she was almost in a state of collapse from nervousness
before they joined us. Poor girl! she had had a sadly anxious time of
it, and her nervous strength had almost broken down.

They came out at last, Sir James first, his grave face looking as
unenlightening as that of the sphinx. Doctor Winchester followed him
closely; his face was pale, but with that kind of pallor which looked
like a reaction. It gave me the idea that it had been red not long
before. Sir James asked that Miss Trelawny would come into the study.
He suggested that I shou