them.'

* * * * *

'When a man has done thee any wrong, immediately consider with what
opinion about good or evil he has done wrong; for when thou hast
seen this thou wilt pity him, and wilt neither wonder nor be
angry.'--M. AURELIUS ANTONINUS.

Biddy was hovering about the passage, as usual. She regarded Michael
with marked disfavour when he asked if he could see her mistress. In her
ignorant way, she had arrived at the conclusion that the Captain was at
the bottom of the mischief.

'Why couldn't he leave things to sort themselves?' she grumbled within
herself. 'But men are over-given to meddling; they mar more than they
make.'

'My mistress is too ill to see anyone,' she returned shortly.

'Do you mean that she is in her own room?' he asked.

But even as he put the question, he could answer it for himself. The
door of the adjoining room was wide open, and he was certain that it was
empty.

'Sick folk do not always stop in their beds,' retorted Biddy still more
sourly; 'but for all that, she is not fit to see visitors.'

She squared her skinny elbows as she spoke, as though prepared to bar
his entrance; but he looked at her in his quiet, authoritative way.

'She will see me, Biddy. Will you kindly allow me to pass?' And the old
woman drew back, muttering as she did so.

But he was obliged to confess that Biddy was right as he opened the
door, and for a moment he hesitated on the threshold.

Mrs. Blake was half sitting, half lying on the couch in a curiously
uneasy position, as though she had flung herself back in some sudden
faintness; her eyes were closed, and the contrast between the pale face
and dark dishevelled hair was very striking; her lips, even, were of the
same marble tint. He had always been compelled to admire her, but he had
done so in grudging fashion; but now he was constrained to own that her
beauty was of no mean order. An artist would have raved over her; she
would have made a model for a Judith or a Magdalene.

As he stood there with his hand on the door, she opened her eyes and
looked at him; but she did not change her attitude or address him.

Michael made up his mind that he must speak to her.

'I am sorry to see you look so ill, Mrs. Blake.'

He took her hand as he spoke; it felt weak and nerveless. But she drew
it hastily away, and her forehead contracted.

'Of course I am ill.'

'I hope Biddy has sent for a doctor;