“No matter. And so they have sent for you, have they? They think I am in danger. You have come on a fool’s errand, both of you. I”—grimly—“I don’t mean to die yet, Grace.”
“Oh, I hope not! Pray, don’t talk of anything so dreadful,” she responded with a false smile. “Why, you know,” and she bent lower, with a fine affectation of modesty, “you are to dance at our—our—wedding, dear marquis.”
“Ah, yes!” he said, wearily, and with none of the enthusiasm she had expected. “Yes, yes, of course. You are going to be married; you and Cecil. Yes, I remember. I’ll make haste and get better. In a day or two——” his eyes closed and he turned his face away.
“He may last for weeks, months, even years, my lady,” said the doctor, of whom Lady Grace made inquiries with a scarcely concealed impatience. “Marvelous constitution, you see, and with care——” and he waved his hands deferentially.
The days passed in what her ladyship declared to be a tediousness almost insupportable. She had the best rooms of the best hotel, but they were not grand enough for her fine London taste, and, as for the scenery, Lady Grace would have exchanged the whole Alpine range for a quarter of a mile of Hyde Park. She would have been happy enough if Cecil could have spent every minute of his time with her, but this Cecil could not do. In his present condition of mind, the society of his engaged wife nearly drove him mad, and he spent most of his time either beside the marquis’ bed or at the villa.
“Surely you do not intend to play the part of sick nurse, my dear Cecil!” Lady Grace remonstrated when, on the third morning after their arrival, he told her that he could not go out riding with her, because he had promised to sit with the marquis.
“Not exactly that, Grace,” he replied, quietly. “But I am naturally anxious about him and wish to be with him, more especially as, strange to say, he seems to desire my presence.”
“He must have changed to an extraordinary extent!” she retorted, with something like a sneer on her exquisitely carved lips.
Cecil nodded.
“Yes,” he assented, simply. “He has changed—for the better. I suppose we shall all feel the approach of the Great Shadow! Poor old man!”