activity there
for the present, and remained a good deal at home. On the Sunday
morning--when Waymark's letter had already been posted--he awoke with a
headache, continued from the night before. It grew worse during the
day, and he went to bed early with a dull pain across the forehead,
which prevented him from sleeping. On the following morning the
headache still remained; he felt a disinclination to rise, and now, for
the first time, began to be troubled with vague fears, which blended
themselves with his various pre-occupations in a confusing way. The
letter which arrived from Waymark was taken up to him. It caused him
extreme irritation, which was followed by uneasy dozing, the pain
across his forehead growing worse the while. A doctor was summoned.

The same day Ida and Miss Hurst left the house, to occupy lodgings hard
by; it was done at Mr. Woodstock's peremptory bidding. Ida at once
wrote to Waymark, begging him to come; he arrived early next morning,
and learnt the state of things.

"The doctor tells me," said Ida, "there is a case in Litany Lane. It is
very cruel. Grandfather went to make arrangements for having the houses
repaired."

"There I recognise your hand," Waymark observed, as she made a pause.

"Why have you so deserted us?" Ida asked. "Why do we see you so seldom?"

"It is so late every evening before I leave the library, and I am busy
with all sorts of things."

They had little to say to each other, Waymark promised to communicate
at once with a friend of Mr. Woodstock's, a man of business, and to
come again as soon as possible, to give any help he could. Whether Ida
had been told of his position remained uncertain.

For Ida they were sad, long days. Troubles which she had previously
managed to keep in the background now again beset her. She had attached
herself to her grandfather; gratitude for all that he was doing at her
wish strengthened her affection, and she awaited each new day with
fear. Waymark seemed colder to her in these days than he had ever been
formerly. The occasion ought, she felt, to have brought them nearer
together; but on his side there appeared to be no such feeling. The
time hung very heavily on her hands. She tried to go on with her
studies, but it was a mere pretence.

Soon, she learnt that there was no hope; the sick man had sunk into a
state of unconsciousness from which he would probably not awake. She
haunted the neighbourhood of the house, or, in her lodging,