on him, Nelly looked at her sister. She
was trembling all over.

'Bridget--_why_ did you do it?' The voice was low and full of horror.

'What do you mean? I made a mistake--that's all!'

'Bridget--you _knew_ it was George! You couldn't be mistaken. Miss
Eustace says--in the letter'--she pointed to it--'they asked you about
his hands. Do you remember how you used to mock at them?'

'As if one could remember after a year and a half!'

'No, you couldn't forget, Bridget--a thing like that--I know you
couldn't. And what made you do it! Did you think I had forgotten
George?'

At that the tears streamed down her face, unheeded. She approached her
sister piteously.

'Bridget, tell me what he looked like! Did you speak to him--did you see
his eyes open? Oh my poor George!--and I here--never thinking of
him'--she broke off incoherently, twisting her hands. 'Miss Eustace says
he was wounded in two places--severely--that she's afraid there's no
hope. Did they say that to you, Bridget--tell me!--for Heaven's sake
tell me!'

'You'll make yourself ill,' said Bridget harshly. 'You'd better lie
down, and let me pack for you.'

Nelly laughed out.

'As if I'd ever let you do anything for me any more! No, that's done
with. You've been so accustomed to manage me all these years. You
thought you could manage me now--you thought you could let George
die--and I should never know--and you'd make me marry--William Farrell.
Bridget--_I hate you!'_

She broke off, shivering, but resumed almost at once--'I see it all--I
think I see it all. And now it's all done for between you and me. If
George dies, I shall never come back to live with you again. You'd
better make plans, Bridget. It's over for ever.'

'You don't know what you're saying, now,' said Bridget, coldly.

Nelly did not hear her, she was lost in a whirl of images and thoughts.
And governed by them she went up to Bridget again, thrusting her small
white face under her sister's eyes.

'What sort of a room was he in, Bridget? Who was nursing him? Are you
sure he didn't know you? Did you call him by his name? Did you make him
understand?'

'He knew nobody,' said Bridget, drawing back, against her will, before
the fire in Nelly's wild eyes. 'He was in a very good room. There was a
nurse sitting with him.'

'Was he--was he very changed?'

'Of course he was. If not, I should have known him.'

Nelly half smiled. Bridget could never have thought that soft mouth
capable of