"You forgive me for my part in it? You do not hate me?"
"Mother! Have I been cold to you then? I have loved you all the time, and never blamed you in my heart."
"You said that I was to blame."
"But I did not mean it. I never thought that you would take an idle word of mine so seriously, mother. Forgive me, and believe me that I would not have given you pain for the world if I had thought, if I had only thought that it would hurt you so much!"
His mother smiled faintly, and closed her eyes for a moment, as if the exertion of speaking had been too much for her; but, after a short pause, she started suddenly, and opened her eyes with a look of extreme terror.
"What is it," she said. "What have I done? Where is she?"
"Who, mother?"
"Your wife, Juliet. What did I do? Is she dead? The fire—the fire——"
Wyvis looked helplessly round for Janetta. He could not answer: he did not know how to calm his mother's rapidly increasing excitement. Janetta came forward and bent over the pillow.
"No, Juliet is not dead. She is in her room; you must not trouble yourself about her," she said.