don't know how it hurts me to seem hard and unfeeling about Ladybird,
when I understand so much too well the spirit that is prompting you to
do this thing. I frankly confess you are right from your point of
view. But there remains my point of view; and so long as I have the
right to prevent it, you shall not spoil your life and hers."

Desmond would have been more, or less, than man if he could have heard
her unmoved; and as he lay looking up at her he was tempted beyond
measure to take possession of those appealing hands, to draw her down
to him, and thank her from his heart for her brave words. But he
merely shifted uneasily.

"I don't quite understand you, Honor," he said slowly. "It is strange
that you should--care so much about what I do with my life."

The words startled her, yet she met them without flinching.

"Is it? I think it would be far more strange if I had lived with you
for a year without learning--to care. That is why I can never say
'Yes' to your request."

"And I am determined that you shall say 'Yes' to it in the end."

The note of immobility in his low voice made her feel powerless to
resist him; but she steeled herself against the sensation by main
force of will.

"At least I can forbid any further mention of it till you are fitter
to cope with such a disturbing subject. Are you aware that it's only
two o'clock? And you need sleep more than anything else just now. I'll
give you some beef-jelly, and sit in my own room for an hour, or I
believe you will never go off again at all."

But when she returned at the end of an hour she found him still awake.

"Honor,"--he began; but she checked him with smiling decision. "Not
another word to-night, Theo, or I must go altogether."

The threat was more compelling than she knew; and sitting down by the
table, she took up her vigil as before.

CHAPTER XXX.

SHE SHALL UNDERSTAND.

"The light of every soul burns upward;
but we are all candles in a wind;
and due allowance must be made for atmospheric disturbances."
--GEO. MEREDITH.

Certain souls, like certain bodies, cannot breathe for long at a
stretch the rarefied atmosphere of the heights; and towards the end of
the second week Evelyn's zeal began to wear thin. Dr Mackay had at
last spoken hopefully as to the fate of Desmond's eyes. Night-nursing
was no longer a necessity; and with the relief from anxiety, from t