e was not recondite. In
the night it had dawned upon her that Rattray had found me harmless and
was done with me, therefore there was no need for her to put herself out
any further on my account. In the morning, finding me really ill, she
had gone to the hall in alarm; her subsequent attentions were an act of
obedience; and in their midst came Rattray himself to my bedside.

CHAPTER XIII. THE LONGEST DAY OF MY LIFE

The boy looked so blithe and buoyant, so gallant and still so frank,
that even now I could not think as meanly of him as poor Eva did. A
rogue he must be, but surely not the petty rogue that she had made him
out. Yet it was dirty work that he had done by me; and there I had to
lie and take his kind, false, felon's hand in mine.

"My poor dear fellow," he cried, "I'm most sorry to find you like this.
But I was afraid of it last night. It's all this infernally strong air!"

How I longed to tell him what it was, and to see his face! The thought
of Eva alone restrained me, and I retorted as before, in a tone I strove
to make as friendly, that it was his admirable wine and nothing else.

"But you took hardly any."

"I shouldn't have touched a drop. I can't stand it. Instead of soothing
me it excites me to the verge of madness. I'm almost over the verge--for
want of sleep--my trouble ever since the trouble."

Again I was speaking the literal truth, and again congratulating myself
as though it were a lie: the fellow looked so distressed at my state;
indeed I believe that his distress was as genuine as mine, and his
sentiments as involved. He took my hand again, and his brow wrinkled at
its heat. He asked for the other hand to feel my pulse. I had to drop my
letter to comply.

"I wish to goodness there was something I could do for you," he said.
"Would you--would you care to see a doctor?"

I shook my head, and could have smiled at his visible relief.

"Then I'm going to prescribe for you," he said with decision. "It's the
place that doesn't agree with you, and it was I who brought you to the
place; therefore it's for me to get you out of it as quick as possible.
Up you get, and I'll drive you to the station myself!"

I had another work to keep from smiling: he was so ingenuously
disingenuous. There was less to smile at in his really nervous anxiety
to get me away. I lay there reading him like a book: it was not my
health that concerned him, of course: was it my safety? I told him he
little knew