'Does Mrs Stanley know?'
'Yes.'
'How soon can the doctor be here?'
'In half-an-hour; but he'll be no good when he does come.'
'Not for him, but Miss Stanley may need him. Her face as she passed out of the door was not reassuring.'
Roland groaned again.
'What a horrible world it is!' he said.
His father dead, his brother estranged, his sweetheart lost to him, and now this new calamity had fallen near him. 'It never rains but it pours.' And it seemed to be raining misfortunes in Firth Vale.
'It is a horrible world,' said the other; 'but reflecting on that truth will not aid anyone just now. Is there nothing we can do?'
'Not that I know of, but we won't go till the doctor comes.'