“I am afraid we shall not be allowed to be happy together long; something will part us.”
“Only death, now, my dearest,” he answered back firmly. “Only death!”
CHAPTER XVII.
WHAT HOPE CAN DO.
“Don’t talk to me of tonics!” said Colonel Dacre, a week after his engagement to Lady Gwendolyn. “I don’t believe in them at all. There is a sovereign remedy for ‘all the ills that flesh is heir to’; but it does not come within the doctors’ province, although they take the credit of its cures.”
“What is that?” inquired Lady Gwendolyn, smiling.
“Hope! When I roused from my long stupor that night, and looked straight into your dear eyes, the love and pity there gave me courage to live. Without that I should have fast drifted back into the shadow again, and not tried to struggle against my terrible weakness. But you forget, Gwen, that you have never told me how you heard of my illness.”
“One of the chambermaids was my first informant. She said there was a gentleman ill in the hotel; and when I questioned her, she described you so accurately that I knew at once whom it must be.”
“But where were you then?”
“Here,” answered Lady Gwendolyn, laughing.