. She must be watched very carefully. Now
I want you to get her to come upstairs, and I'll try to make her go to
bed."

Michael felt his mouth go suddenly dry.

"What do you expect?" he said.

"I don't expect anything, but we must be prepared. A change comes very
quickly."

Michael nodded, and they went back together.

"Now, mother darling," he said, "up you go with Nurse Baker. You've been
out all day, and you must have a good rest before dinner. Shall I come
up and see you soon?"

A curious, sly look came into Lady Ashbridge's face.

"Yes, but where am I going to?" she said. "How do I know Nurse Baker
will take me to my own room?"

"Because I promise you she will," said Michael.

That instantly reassured her. Mood after mood, as Michael saw, were
passing like shadows over her mind.

"Ah, that's enough!" she said. "Good-bye, Miss--there! the name's gone
again! But won't you sit here and have a talk to Michael, and let him
show you over the house to see if you like it against the time--Oh,
Michael said I mustn't worry you about that. And won't you stop and have
dinner with us, and afterwards we can sing."

Michael put his arm around her.

"We'll talk about that while you're resting," he said. "Don't keep Nurse
Baker waiting any longer, mother."

She nodded and smiled.

"No, no; mustn't keep anybody waiting," she said. "Your father taught me
to be punctual."

When they had left the room together, Sylvia turned to Michael.

"Michael, my dear," she said, "I think you are--well, I think you are
Michael."

She saw that at the moment he was not thinking of her at all, and her
heart honoured him for that.

"I'm anxious about my mother to-night," he said. "She has been so--I
suppose you must call it--well all day, but the nurse isn't easy about
her."

Suddenly all his fears and his fatigue and his trouble looked out of his
eyes.

"I'm frightened," he said, "and it's so unutterably feeble of me. And
I'm tired: you don't know how tired, and try as I may I feel that all
the time it is no use. My mother is slipping, slipping away."

"But, my dear, no wonder you are tired," she said. "Michael, can't
anybody help? It isn't right you should do everything."

He shook his head, smiling.

"They can't help," he said. "I'm the only person who can help her. And
I--"

He stood up, bracing mind and body.

"And I'm so brutally proud of it," he said. "She wants me. Well, that's
a lot for a son to be able to s