'I am sorry not to have come before, but there has been so much to do.'
'And he?'
'Tom May thinks his pulse stronger, and was struck by the look of rally about his face when we came back after supper.'
'Who is there now?'
'Wilmet and the Professor. May will let no one sit up who has been in the water. I care the less because with my door open it is almost like being in the same room.'
'But he is better?'
'Not in pain,' said Clement; 'and May thinks that there are no ribs broken, though there is a great bruise. Much may be only violent sprain, and it may be only some unimportant vessel that has given way; but he is too weak and tender yet for anything like examination. However, as long as the bleeding does not return, he is gaining every hour.'
'It was that dreadful scramble up the bank!'
'That quite accounts for it; and he must have twisted himself as he threw himself over the rail. No one could have done it in cold blood, even without dear Baby's weight.'
'And after that he pulled me up! Clem, it was you that saved me, and yet I could not thank you if—O Clem!' She laid her head on his shoulder, struggling with horror at the bare notion of life without Felix.