"Do I?" she said, pushing the hair from her forehead with both hands, and staring before her vacantly. "Perhaps I am."
"Measles—or influenza," he said, with a pursing of the lips. "Get up to bed, Nell."
"I'm going," she said.
She came round the table, and, leaning both hands on his shoulders, bent her lovely head and kissed him.
"Dick, you—you care for me still?" she asked, in a strained voice.
He stared at her, as, brother like, he wiped the kiss from his lips.
"Care for you? What——Look here, Nell, you're behaving like a second-class idiot. And your lips are like fire. I'm dashed if I don't think you are going to have something."
She laughed and shook her head, and went upstairs. How long the few stairs seemed! Or was it that her legs seemed to have become like lead?
As she passed Mrs. Lorton's room, that lady's voice called to her. Nell opened the door, leaning against it.
"Is that you, Eleanor?" said Mrs. Lorton. "What a noise you made coming in! Really, I think you might have shown some consideration. You know how lightly I sleep. I've the news for you." There was a touch of self-satisfaction in her voice. "A letter has come. Here it is. You had better read it and think over it."