To his amazement her tense form almost instantly relaxed and in twenty minutes she was asleep.
He sat there with his head bowed upon his hands for nearly two hours, thinking as he had seldom thought during his whole life. At the end of that time the door of Dorothy's room was noiselessly opened and Mrs. Minturn beckoned to him.
He went to her—softly closing to but not latching the door of his sister's room—to ascertain what she wanted, but with fear and trembling.
"Please get me a glass of warm milk," she said to him.
"There is some brandy—" he began.
"No; milk, if you please," she returned, and disappeared within the room.
A few minutes later he handed the glass in to her and the door was shut again.
Another endless hour and a half he passed sitting upon a balcony that opened off the same floor, waiting—waiting for he knew not what.
Then Mrs. Minturn came to him with the empty tumbler in her hand.
"Have it filled again, please," she said.