s treated me with
courteous consideration not invariably shown to me by M. E.'s guests;
and I cannot help being sorry for him, if--which I fear is almost a
certainty--she will secure him in the end.

Then the letter ended.

Arabella was much worried. However, she felt she might remain neutral so
far as this, that, when Mrs. Cricklander indulged in endless
speculations as to why John Derringham should have been trying to cross
that difficult and dangerous haw-haw, she gave no hint that his
destination could have been other than the Professor's little house. She
did swerve sufficiently to the other side to remark that to cross the
haw-haw would save at least a mile by the road if one were in a hurry.
And then her loyalty caused her to repeat, with extra care, to John
Derringham in a whisper the fib which Mrs. Cricklander wished--namely,
that she, the fair Cecilia, was there ready to come to him and sit up
with him, and do anything in the world for him, and was only prevented
by the doctor's strict orders, fearing the slightest excitement for the
patient--and that these orders caused her great grief.

John Derringham's eyes looked grateful, but he did not speak.

His head ached so terribly and his body was wracked with pain, while his
ankle, not having been set for twenty-four hours, had swollen so that it
rendered its proper setting a very difficult matter, and caused him
unspeakable suffering. Sir Benjamin Grant had to come down to Wendover
twice again before things looked in more hopeful state.

And what agonizing thoughts coursed through his poor feverish
brain--until through sheer weakness there would be hours when he was
numb.

What could Halcyone have thought waiting for him all that day! and now
she, of course, must have heard of his accident and there was no sign or
word.

Or was there--and were those cruel doctors not giving him the message?
The day came--the Wednesday after Arabella had sent her letter to her
mother--when he was strong enough to speak. He waited for the moment
when Miss Clinker always arrived with Mrs. Cricklander's bunch of
flowers and morning greeting--and then, while the nurse went from the
room for a second, he whispered with dry lips:

"Will you do me a kindness?" And Arabella's brown eyes gleamed softly
behind her glasses. "Let Miss Halcyone La Sarthe know how I am--she
would come and meet you any day at Mr. Carlyon's--" then he stopped,
disturbed by the blank look in