er in a faint, indistinguishable drone. She had not the slightest
interest in what he wished to say to Lady Clifford, nor in the effect
it would have upon the latter. All at once she heard the Frenchwoman
shriek out with a piercing sharpness.

"No, no, it's impossible! You can't do it! You sha'n't!"

The words, half supplication, half angry protest, seemed wrung from
their owner out of sheer anguish. A low monotone made reply, but it
was interrupted by a fresh burst.

"But it is ridiculous, stupid! I am not a child, it's not in the least
necessary. I don't have to be watched. _Ah! c'est insupportable!_"

Esther rose uncertainly, wondering if she ought to intervene. While
she hesitated, a still wilder tirade decided her. She opened the door
just in time to behold a startling spectacle. Lady Clifford was that
instant seizing hold of her husband by his emaciated shoulders and
shaking him furiously, crying in a strangled voice:

"_Pas lui, pas lui! Vieux monstre que tu es!_"

"Stop! Lady Clifford, what on earth are you doing?"

Wholly aghast, Esther forgot everything except that her patient was
being bodily attacked--there was no other word for what was happening.
Running forward, she grasped the wife forcibly by the arm and pulled
her back from the bed, then, thoroughly frightened, bent over the old
man, who had sunk back limp and panting. In her ear she heard the
Frenchwoman's choked breathing, but she did not trouble to look at her.

"Are you all right, Sir Charles?" she asked as calmly as she could.

She was amazed to see a queer little flicker of humour in the sunken
eyes.

"Oh, quite, quite," he gasped in a spent tone. "Don't trouble about
me: but just get Lady Clifford away, will you?"

Turning, Esther beheld a look of baleful resentment in the
black-fringed eyes. She remarked the stubby white hand with its
carmine nails slowly rubbing a spot on the opposite arm, where she had
grasped it a moment ago.

"You! You!" breathed the Frenchwoman in a suppressed voice. "What
business have you to interfere in matters that do not concern you?"

"But I'm afraid this does concern me, Lady Clifford, very much indeed,"
replied Esther, as lightly as she could. "Do forgive me if I caught
hold of you rather roughly. I am sure you didn't realise what you were
doing. It--it was really dangerous for him, you know."

"Dangerous!" repeated the other with withering contempt. "For him!
T'ck!--leave us,