to reach the hospital a little before three;
but though it lacked five minutes to the hour when he entered the
parlour, two women were already seated in one of its windows. They
looked around as he came in, evidently as much annoyed by his appearance
as he had been to find them there. The older of the two showed a sallow
middle-aged face beneath her limp crape veil; the other was a slight
tawdry creature, with nodding feathers, and innumerable chains and
bracelets which she fingered ceaselessly as she talked.

They eyed Amherst with resentment, and then turned away, continuing
their talk in low murmurs, while he seated himself at the marble-topped
table littered with torn magazines. Now and then the younger woman's
voice rose in a shrill staccato, and a phrase or two floated over to
him. "She'd simply worked herself to death--the nurse told me so.... She
expects to go home in another week, though how she's going to stand the
_fatigue_----" and then, after an inaudible answer: "It's all _his_
fault, and if I was her I wouldn't go back to him for anything!"

"Oh, Cora, he's real sorry now," the older woman protestingly murmured;
but the other, unappeased, rejoined with ominously nodding plumes:
"_You_ see--if they do make it up, it'll never be the same between
them!"

Amherst started up nervously, and as he did so the clock struck three,
and he opened the door and passed out into the hall. It was paved with
black and white marble; the walls were washed in a dull yellowish tint,
and the prevalent odour of antiseptics was mingled with a stale smell of
cooking. At the back rose a straight staircase carpeted with brass-bound
India-rubber, like a ship's companion-way; and down that staircase she
would come in a moment--he fancied he heard her step now....

But the step was that of an elderly black-gowned woman in a cap--the
matron probably.

She glanced at Amherst in surprise, and asked: "Are you waiting for some
one?"

He made a motion of assent, and she opened the parlour door, saying:
"Please walk in."

"May I not wait out here?" he urged.

She looked at him more attentively. "Why, no, I'm afraid not. You'll
find the papers and magazines in here."

Mildly but firmly she drove him in before her, and closing the door,
advanced to the two women in the window. Amherst's hopes leapt up:
perhaps she had come to fetch the visitors upstairs! He strained his
ears to catch what was being said, and while he was thus absorb