"Did you try to persuade her to come home?"
"Yes," answered Amos vaguely.
"And she wouldn't listen?"
"No."
Grandfather went slowly back into his room and lay down. After a while he uttered a sigh which seemed unending.
CHAPTER XXV
A PROJECTED ATONEMENT
Stephen's forty-second birthday fell upon the day on which he made the final arrangements for Hilda's residence at the King Sanatorium. He had not seen her because she was obsessed by fear of him, and he sat in the office until the superintendent returned with Mayne and Dr. Good. Even Dr. King, sanguine as his temperament was, was in this case not hopeful.
"The family history is not encouraging," he explained, with deepest commiseration for Stephen, deprived before middle life of an attractive companion. "But you must not despair."