"Dr. Howell, can you do nothing for me?"
Her voice had sunk to a whisper, and she leaned eagerly forward to catch his answer.
"Miss Earl, do you know what is meant by hypertrophy of the heart?"
"Yes, yes, I know."
She shivered slightly.
"Whether you inherited your disease, I am not prepared to say, but certainly in your case there are some grounds for the belief."
Presently she said abstractedly:
"But grandpa lived to be an old man."
The doctor's eyes fell upon the mosaic floor of the library; and then she knew that he could give her no hope.
When at last he looked up again, he saw that she had dropped her face in her palms, and he was awed by the deathlike repose of her figure, the calm fortitude she evinced.