He leaned back faint and shuddering in the deck-chair in the rose-garden where he was lying.
Presently Rachel appeared, coming towards him down the narrow grass walk between two high walls of hollyhocks. She had a cup of tea in her hand.
"I have brought you this," she said, "with a warning that you had better not come in to tea. Mr. Gresley has been sighted walking up the drive. Mrs. Loftus thought you would like to see him, but I reminded her that Dr. Brown said you were to be kept very quiet."
Mr. Gresley had called every day since the accident in order to cheer the sufferer, to whom he had been greatly attracted. Hugh had seen him once, and afterwards had never felt strong enough to repeat the process.
"Must you go back?" he asked.
"No," she said. "Mrs. Loftus and he are great friends. I should be rather in the way."
And she sat down by him.
"Are you feeling ill?" she said, gently, noticing his careworn face.
"No," he replied. "I was only thinking. I was thinking," he went on, after a pause, "that I would give everything I possess not to have done something which I have done."
Rachel looked straight in front of her. The confession was coming at last. Her heart beat.