from Jimmy to the
porter wonderingly. Jimmy took her hand.

"Your mother isn't very well, dear." The little word slipped out
unconsciously. "There is a doctor with her now. . . . No, don't be
worried. I dare say it's nothing. I'll come up with you and see."

Christine fled up the staircase. She was already in her mother's room
when Jimmy overtook her. Through the half-closed door he could see the
doctor and a woman in nurse's dress. His heart began to race.
Supposing Mrs. Wyatt were really ill; supposing---- The doctor came
out to him as he stood on the landing.

"Are you--are you a relative of Mrs. Wyatt's?" he asked.

Jimmy hesitated.

"I--I am engaged to Miss Wyatt," he said. "I hope--I hope there is
nothing serious the matter?"

The doctor glanced back over his shoulder. Jimmy's eyes instinctively
turned in the same direction; he could see Christine on her knees
beside the bed in the darkened room.

"Mrs. Wyatt is dying, I regret to say," the doctor said; he spoke in a
low voice, so that his words should not reach Christine. "It's only a
question of hours at most. I've done all I can, but nothing can save
her. It's heart trouble, you know; she must have been suffering with
it for years."

Jimmy Challoner stood staring at him, white-faced--stunned.

"Oh, my God!" he said at last. He was terribly shocked; he could not
believe it. He looked again to where Christine knelt by the bed.

"Does she--Christine--who is to tell her?" he asked incoherently.

The doctor shook his head.

"I should suggest that you----" he began.

Jimmy recoiled. "I! Oh, I couldn't. . . . I----" He broke off
helplessly. He was thinking of the old days down at Upton House; the
great kindness that had always been shown to him by Christine's mother.
There was a choking feeling in his throat.

"I think you are the one to tell her," said the doctor again, rather
stiffly.

Christine had heard their voices. She looked towards the door; she
rose softly and came out to where the two men stood.

Her eyes were anxious, but she was a hundred miles from guessing the
truth. She spoke to Jimmy Challoner.

"She's asleep, Jimmy. The nurse tells me that she only fainted. Oh, I
ought not to have left her when I knew she wasn't well. I shall never
forgive myself; but she'll be all right now if she has a nice sleep,
poor darling."

Jimmy could not meet her eyes; he bit his lip hard to hide its sudden
trembling.

The