Gertrude rose instantly, and followed the servant to his master's side.
His eyes looked wild; and he turned to his visitor almost fiercely.
"Are you alive?" he asked. "What makes you haunt me so? You and your dead baby; I can't bear it, and I wont."
"Paul," she murmured softly; for the first time putting her hand on his head.
He clutched eagerly at it; and was carrying it to his lips, when with a shriek he let it fall, gasping out:
"I forgot! I forgot!!"
The deep humility of his voice and tone touched her as nothing else had done.
Her eyes filled with tears of compassion as she gazed at his haggard countenance; when suddenly taking his hand from his eyes he observed traces of her emotion.
"May I ask one question?" he inquired.
"Certainly."