"Keep him quiet, and he may pull through yet. I don't say he will, but he may. Only—he mustn't have any excitement."
"He's had a great deal this morning. If it lasts all day, and if—he has any more of it to-night, will it hurt him? It's pleasant excitement, you know."
The doctor looked keenly at her. To judge by her white face she was not sharing in the pleasant excitement.
"Well, I can't say. Pleasure does less harm than pain, sometimes. Don't let him have any suspense, though. Suspense will kill him."
But suspense was what he had to bear.
Katherine knew that he was living on in the hope of Audrey's coming. Well, she would be with him by nine at the latest, as she had said.
At half-past eight Vincent began to listen for every bell. At nine he asked to have the door set ajar, that he might hear the wheels of her cab in the street. But though many cabs went by, none stopped.
"She's missed her train. We didn't give her much time. Look out the next, Kathy."
Katherine looked it out. "She'll be here by eleven if she catches the three-o'clock. It gets to Paddington at ten."
Vincent closed his eyes and waited patiently till ten. Then he became excited again, the nervous tension increasing with every quarter of an hour. By eleven the street was still, and Vincent strained his ears for every sound. But no sounds were to be heard.