“Where are you going?” he asked. Mrs. Levice stood instantly beside him.

“Oh,” gasped Levice, his eyes falling upon her, “I wanted to get home; but it is all right now. Is the child in bed, Esther?”

“Here she is; lie still, Jules; you know you are ill.”

“But not now. Ah, Kemp, I can get up now; I am quite well, you know.”

“Wait till morning,” he resisted, humoring this inevitable idiosyncrasy.

“But it is morning now; and I feel so light and well. Open the shutters, Ruth; see, Esther; a beautiful day.”

It was quite dark with the darkness that immediately precedes dawn; the windows were bespangled with the distillations of the night, which gleamed as the light fell on them.

Mrs. Levice seated herself beside him.

“It is very early, Jules,” she said, smiling with hope, not knowing that this deceptive feeling was but the rose-flush of the sinking sun; “but if you feel well when day breaks you can get up, can’t he Doctor?”

“Yes.”