“Come, come, this will never do. Pull yourself together, or I shall think.... I shan’t know what to think....”
Peter recovered himself as quickly as he had collapsed, rose to his feet.
“It was so sudden,” he said apologetically. “I was unprepared....”
“I could have told you exactly what would happen. The case could hardly have ended any other way.”
He said a few kind words about himself and his skill as a diagnostician. Peter listened meekly, and was rewarded by the offer of a lift home. “You can come up again later, when the family has arrived, they will be sure to want to know about her last moments.... Or I might come myself, tell them I foresaw it....”
CHAPTER XVI
I woke up suddenly. A minute ago I had seen Peter Kennedy kneeling by the sofa, his head against Margaret’s dress. He had looked young, little more than a boy. Now he was by my side, bending over me. There was grey in his hair, lines about his face.
“You’ve grown grey,” was the first thing I said, feebly enough I’ve no doubt, and he did not seem to hear me. “My arm aches. How could you do it?”
“Do what?”
“She was so young, so impetuous, everything might have come right....”