was Willie to this? She must be
consistent. She could see Charles was very angry with her, but she could
not encourage what was wrong, even if he was angry. In short, Dare must
go.

But, when it came to the point, it was found that Dare could not go.
Nothing short of force would have turned the unwelcome guest out of the
bed in the blue bedroom, from which he made no attempt to rise, and on
which he lay worn-out and feverish, in a stupor of sheer mental and
physical exhaustion.

Charles and Ralph went and looked at him rather ruefully, with masculine
helplessness, and the end of it was that Evelyn, in nowise softened, for
she was a good woman, had to give way, and a doctor was sent for.

"Send for the man in D----. Don't have the Slumberleigh man," said
Charles; "it will only make more talk;" and the doctor from D---- was
accordingly sent for.

He did not arrive till the afternoon, and after he had seen Dare, and
given him a sleeping draught, and had talked reassuringly of a mental
shock and a feverish temperament he apologized for his delay in coming.
He had been kept, he said, drawing on his gloves as he spoke, by a very
serious case in the police-station at D----. A man had been arrested on
suspicion the previous night, and he seemed to have sustained some fatal
internal injury. He ought to have been taken to the infirmary at once;
but it had been thought he was only shamming when first arrested, and
once in the police-station he could not be moved, and--the doctor took
up his hat--he would probably hardly outlive the day.

"By-the-way," he added, turning at the door, "he asked over and over
again, while I was with him, to see you or Mr. Danvers. I'm sure I
forget which, but I promised him I would mention it. Nearly slipped my
memory, all the same. He said one of you had known him in his better
days, at--Oxford, was it?"

"What name?" asked Charles.

"Stephens," replied the doctor. "He seemed to think you would remember
him."

"Stephens," said Charles, reflectively. "Stephens! I once had a valet of
that name, and a very good one he was, who left my service rather
abruptly, taking with him numerous portable memorials of myself,
including a set of diamond studs. I endeavored at the time to keep up my
acquaintance with him; but he took measures effectually to close it. In
fact, I have never heard of him from that day to this."

"That's the man, no doubt," replied the doctor. "He has--er--a sort of
look abou