"You must come away, my dear," he said hoarsely.
Alice Deringham shivered, but she stood very straight a moment, staring down with dilated eyes at the grim figure in the chair.
"Touch him. Speak to him," she said in a voice that set Forel's nerves on edge, and then as the last faint hope died away, stretched out her hands with a little half-choked cry.
"Come away," said Forel very huskily.
He was sensible that the girl's hand was very cold as he drew her from the room, but he left her with his wife on the verandah and then went back hastily. Forel was a kindly man, but he knew that speculation in Western mines has its under-side, and it was for the girl's sake he stripped off the top sheet of the blotting-pad, which had a recent impression on it, and afterwards poured the remaining contents of a wineglass out into the stove. Then he glanced all round the room before he went out to send for a doctor. It was an hour later when he found his wife alone.
"How is she?" he said.
Mrs. Forel's eyes were hazy. "I think she has given way at last—it was awful at first when she would only sit and look at me," she said; and then her voice sank a little, "How did it happen, Tom?"
"Heart disease," said Forel. "The doctor is quite sure of that."
"But," said Mrs. Forel, "what brought it on?"
"Well," said Forel slowly, "anything that upsets one is apt to prove perilous in cases like his, and I rather fancy that Deringham had a quarrel with Hallam. They had dealings together, and I think Deringham must have lost a good deal of money. You will not, however, mention it to anybody."