"If you should be right, he must be horribly worried about his affairs. I'll just say a word to relieve his mind." Then speaking slowly and distinctly I gave a brief account of the course of the markets, dwelt on the success of the syndicate in sustaining the business fabric, and hinted at the need for more money on the morrow.
There was no physical response. If there was an intelligent brain in that inert body, it found no servant at its call among the flaccid muscles, and not even the moving of an eyelid gave sign that I was understood. Yet as I spoke, there came somewhere in my consciousness the conviction that I was heard, and that my words had brought relief to an overstrained mind.
Laura Kendrick looked quickly from the face of her uncle to mine, and a sudden light sprang into her eyes.
"You felt it, too," she said.
"Yes."
"You have done good; but you mustn't stay here any longer. Don't leave the house, though, unless you have to. I shall be afraid when you are gone."
As she opened the door to banish me from the sick-room, a servant had just raised his hand to tap at the panel.
"What is it?" she asked.
"A man to see Mr. Hampden. I took him into the library."
CHAPTER XXVII