‘What caused your illness?’ she asked, speaking as one wearied with suffering. She lay back, and her eyes were closed.
‘I cannot say,’ he answered. ‘Do not speak of me. In your last letter there was no account of how he died.’
‘It was in church, at the morning service. The pew-opener found him sitting there dead, when all had gone away.’
‘But the vicar could see into the pew from the pulpit? The death must have been very peaceful.’
‘No, he could not see; the front curtains were drawn.’
‘Why was that, I wonder?’
Mrs. Eldon shook her head.
‘Are you in pain?’ she asked suddenly. ‘Why do you breathe so strangely?’
‘A little pain. Oh, nothing; I will see Manns to-morrow.’
His mother gazed long and steadily into his eyes, and this time he bore her look.