upied with State affairs, he found himself thinking of her,
and when she was absent for rest he looked forward eagerly to her
return. To Sister Gertrude he spoke but little, while to Jean he was
always frank, open, and exceedingly chatty.

Yet constantly did the suspicion arise in his mind that she was in
possession of some dread secret, that there was a chapter in her past
which she was undesirous of revealing.

In the middle of December he grew convalescent, and Sir Evered one day
announced that he would, with care, completely recover.

The daily bulletins in the newspapers ceased to appear, and the world
then knew that the renowned Foreign Secretary was on his way back to
health.

This he attributed to Jean's careful nursing. To every one he was loud
in her praises. Indeed, he often spoke of her in eulogistic terms while
she was present, and on such occasions she would blush deeply and
declare that she had only performed her duty.

In those weeks they had been constantly in each other's society. The
long days in which she sat at his bedside reading or doing needlework,
and the nights when each quarter of an hour she stole in stealthily to
see that all was well, she had grown very partial to his society. He was
so bright and intellectual, and possessed such a keen sense of humour
when his mind was not overshadowed by the weight of political events.
Often he would chat with her for hours, and sometimes, indeed, he would
put a subtle question upon the matter in which he now took so keen an
interest--her past.

But to all his cleverly-conceived inquiries she remained dumb. Her wit
was as quick as his, and he saw that whatever was the truth, her
intelligence was of a very high order. She would speak freely upon every
other subject, but as to what she had done or where she had been before
entering the Sisterhood she refused to satisfy him.

The past! To her it was all a horrible nightmare. Often, when alone, the
face of Ralph Ansell, the man who had been shot like a dog by the
police, arose before her. She tried to blot it out, but all was, alas!
of no avail.

Sometimes she compared her patient with her dead husband. And then she
would sigh to herself--sigh because she held the Earl in such admiration
and esteem.

Just after Christmas another diplomatic bombshell burst in Europe.
Darnborough came to and fro to Bracondale half a dozen times in the
course of four or five days. Once he arrived by special train from