d risen up, and so had he. They were neither of them aware of it.
Jock had lost consciousness, perception, all thought of anything but her
and this that he was urging upon her. While as for Bice the tide had
gone too high over her head. She felt giddy in the presence of something
so much more powerful than any feeling she had ever known, and yet
gazed at him half alarmed, half troubled as she was, with a perception
that could not be anything but humorous of the boy's voice sounding so
bass and deep, sometimes bursting into childish, womanish treble, and
the boy's aspect which contrasted so strongly with the passion in which
he spoke. When Sir Tom's voice made itself audible, coming from the
boudoir in conversation with the Contessa, the effect upon the two thus
standing in a sort of mortal encounter was extraordinary. Bice straining
up to the mark which he was setting before her, bewildered with the
flood on which she was rising, sank into ease again and a mastery of the
situation, while Jock, worn out and with a sense that all was over, sat
down abruptly, and left, as it were, the stage clear.

"The poor little man is rather bad, I fear," said Sir Tom, coming
through the dim room. There was something in his voice, an easier tone,
a sound of relief. How had the Contessa succeeded in cheering him? "And
what is worse (for he will do well I hope) is the scattering of all her
friends from about Lucy. I am kept out of it, and it does not matter,
you see; but she, poor little woman,"--his voice softened as he named
her with a tone of tenderness--"nobody will go near her," he said.

The Contessa gave a little shiver, and drew about her the loose shawl
she wore. "What can we say in such a case? It is not for us, it is for
those around us. It is a risk for so many----"

"My aunt," said Sir Tom, "would be her natural ally; but I know Lady
Randolph too well to think of that. And there is Jock, whom we are
compelled to send away. We shall be like two crows all alone in the
house."

"Is it this you told me of, fever?" cried Bice, turning to Jock. "But it
is I that will go--oh, this moment! It is no tr-rouble. I can sit up. I
never am sleepy. I am so strong nothing hurts me. I will go directly,
now."

"You!" they all cried, but the Contessa's tones were most high. She made
a protest full of indignant virtue.

"Do you think," she said, "if I had but myself to think of that I would
not fly to her? But, child in your position! _fi