“Seriously ill, do you mean?” inquired Rhoda, with difficulty softening her voice.
“She gets up each day, but I’m often afraid that—She has had fainting fits—”
Rhoda gazed at the speaker with pitiless scrutiny.
“What can have caused this? Is it the result of her being falsely accused?”
“Partly that. But—”
Suddenly Virginia rose, stepped to Rhoda’s side, and whispered a word or two. Rhoda turned pale; her eyes glared fiercely.
“And still you believe her innocent?”
“She has sworn to me that she is innocent. She says that she has a proof of it which I shall see some day—and her husband also. A presentiment has fixed itself in her mind that she can’t live, and before the end she will tell everything.”
“Her husband knows of this, of course—of what you have told me?”
“No. She has forbidden me to say anything—and how could I, Miss Nunn? She has made me promise solemnly that he shall not be told. I haven’t even told Alice. But she will know very soon. At the end of September she leaves her place, and will come to London to be with us—for a time at all events. We do so hope that we shall succeed in persuading Monica to go to the house at Clevedon. Mr. Widdowson is keeping it, and will move the furniture from Herne Hill at any moment. Couldn’t you help us, dear Miss Nunn? Monica would listen to you; I am sure she would.”