"Assuredly not. The risk would be very great. It should not be encountered if there is any possibility of his remaining here for the present."
He looked questioningly toward the mistress of the house.
Madeleine promptly replied, "These apartments are entirely at the service of Count Tristan and his family, if they will honor me by occupying them."
"That is well," returned the doctor. "Let the count remain undisturbed until he is convalescent. I will see him again in the evening."
Dr. Bayard took his leave, and Maurice turned to Madeleine,—
"This is most unfortunate. It is a great burden to be thrown upon you, Madeleine."
She interrupted him quickly. "You could hardly have spoken words less kind, Maurice. If this shock could not have been spared your father, I am thankful that it fell beneath my roof. He will be more quiet here than in a hotel, and can be better tended. If the countess will permit me, I will gladly constitute myself his chief garde malade. I have had some experience"—
That inadvertent remark increased the agitation of Maurice, and he answered, in a voice tremulous from the rush of sad recollections, "Who can testify to that better than I? Do you think I have forgotten the good sœur de bon secours whose movements I used to watch, and whose features, dimly traced by the feeble light of the veilleuse, I never ceased to gaze upon, as she moved about my bed?"
Madeleine smiled and sighed at the same moment, and then remarked, perhaps to turn the conversation,—