ten done in the old days at Florence; so she only put
down her candle on the table, and curled herself up in a big
arm-chair; and in five minutes, in spite of her resolution to
keep wide awake till she should be summoned, she was sound
asleep.

Low voices were consulting together in the next room, people
coming in and out; the French doctor who had been sent for
arriving; cautious footsteps, and soft movements about the
injured man. But Madelon heard none of them, she slept soundly
on, and only awoke at last to see her candle go out with a
splutter, and the grey light of dawn creeping chilly into the
room. She awoke with a start and shiver of cold, and sat up
wondering to find herself there; then a rush of recollections
came over her of last night, or her father's accident, and she
jumped up quickly, straightening herself, stretching her
little stiff limbs, and pushing back her tumbled hair with
both hands from the sleepy eyes that were hardly fairly open
even now.

Her first movement was towards the door between the two
bedrooms, but she checked herself, remembering that Monsieur
le Docteur had told her she must not go in there till she was
called. There was another door to her room leading into the
corridor, and just at that moment she heard two people stop
outside of it, talking together in subdued tones.

"Then I leave the case altogether in your hands," says a
strange man's voice. "I am absolutely obliged to leave Paris
for B---- by the first train this morning, and cannot be back
till to-morrow night; so, as you say, Monsieur, you are in
Paris for some time----"

"For the next few days, at any rate," answered the other; and
Madelon recognized Graham's voice and English accent, "long
enough to see this case through to the end, I am afraid."

"If anything can be done, you will do it, I am sure,"
interrupted the other with warmth. "You must permit me to say,
Monsieur, as an old man may say to a young _confrere_, that it
is seldom one meets with so much coolness and skill in such a
very critical case. Nothing else could have saved----"

The voices died away as the speakers walked towards the end of
the passage. Madelon had hardly taken in the sense of the few
sentences she had heard; she was only anxious now to see
Graham and ask if she might go to her father, so she opened
her door softly and crept into the passage, meeting Horace as
he returned towards the sick-room after seeing the French
doctor off. He