"Nothing?" The colonel meant to ask her about Harmon, and she understood.
"Nothing," she answered gravely. "There was no improvement when the doctor wrote, on the first of last month. I shall have another report in a day or two. But they are all exactly alike. He will just live on, as he is now, to the end of his life."
"To the end of his life," repeated the colonel, in a low voice, and the two turned their heads and looked at each other.
"He is in perfect health," said Mrs. Harmon, looking away again.
She drew out a long hat-pin and lifted her hat from her head with both hands, for it was a hot afternoon, and she had come into the sitting-room as she was. The colonel noticed how neatly and carefully she did the thing. It seemed almost unnecessary to do it so slowly.
"It is so hot," she said, as she laid the hat on the table.
She was pale now, perhaps with the heat of which she complained, and he saw how tired her face was.
"Is this state of things really to go on?" he asked suddenly.
She moved a little, but did not look at him.
"I am not discontented," she said. "I am not--not altogether unhappy."