blushed entrancingly--"we thought you
had forgotten us."

"That's not a little bit likely," he replied, taking her proffered
hand, and there was that in his voice and in his look which made her
lower her frank grey eyes. "I have only been in London a few days, and
I find that Press work is more exacting than I had anticipated!"

"Did you want to see my uncle very particularly?" asked Myra.

"In a way, yes. I suppose he could not manage to see me--"

Myra shook her head. Now that the flush of excitement had left her
face, Cairn was concerned to see how pale she was and what dark
shadows lurked beneath her eyes.

"Sir Michael is not seriously ill?" he asked quickly. "Only one of the
visual attacks--"

"Yes--at least it began with one."

She hesitated, and Cairn saw to his consternation that her eyes became
filled with tears. The real loneliness of her position, now that her
guardian was ill, the absence of a friend in whom she could confide
her fears, suddenly grew apparent to the man who sat watching her.

"You are tired out," he said gently. "You have been nursing him?"

She nodded and tried to smile.

"Who is attending?"

"Sir Elwin Groves, but--"

"Shall I wire for my father?"

"We wired for him yesterday!"

"What! to Paris?"

"Yes, at my uncle's wish."

Cairn started.

"Then--he thinks he is seriously ill, himself?"

"I cannot say," answered the girl wearily. "His behaviour is--queer.
He will allow no one in his room, and barely consents to see Sir
Elwin. Then, twice recently, he has awakened in the night and made a
singular request."

"What is that?"

"He has asked me to send for his solicitor in the morning, speaking
harshly and almost as though--he hated me...."

"I don't understand. Have you complied?"

"Yes, and on each occasion he has refused to see the solicitor when he
has arrived!"

"I gather that you have been acting as night-attendant?"

"I remain in an adjoining room; he is always worse at night. Perhaps
it is telling on my nerves, but last night--"

Again she hesitated, as though doubting the wisdom of further speech;
but a brief scrutiny of Cairn's face, with deep anxiety to be read in
his eyes, determined her to proceed.

"I had been asleep, and I must have been dreaming, for I thought that
a voice was chanting, quite near to me."

"Chanting?"

"Yes--it was horrible, in some way. Then a sensation of intense
coldness came; it was as though some icily cold creature