"Mr Inglethwaite, we have done a thing which should not, properly, have been done without your consent. Your secretary suggested the idea, and I agreed. Mrs Inglethwaite made a point of our saying nothing to you, and volunteered to take all responsibility on herself. She said you were not to be worried. So I wired for Sir James——"
"I see," I said, "and he operated?"
"Yes, at three o'clock this afternoon. Indeed, your sister-in-law, I think, purposely concealed from you——"
"She did." That, then, was the "crisis" that Dolly had in her mind, and that, too, was why she had told me to come back at five—when everything would be well over!
I continued—
"And how have you—I mean—is she——?"
"The operation," said the old man, "was entirely successful, and, as it turned out, most necessary. But of course for so young a patient the strain was terrible."
"How is she?"
"She came through finely, but I do not conceal from you the fact that her life hangs by a thread."
I had a premonition that something was going to be "broken" to me. I dropped into a chair, and waited dully. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder, and Sir James continued—