"Have I shocked you?" asked Captain Kirton. "I may yet get the better of it."
"I believe I was thinking of Maude," answered Hartledon, slowly recovering from his stupor. "I never heard—I had no idea that Maude's heart was not perfectly sound."
"And I don't know but that it is sound; it was only a fancy when she was a child, and there might have been no real grounds for it. My mother is full of crotchets on the subject of illness; and says she won't have anything about heart-disease put into Maude's head. She is right, of course, so far, in using precaution; so please remember that I am suffering from any disorder but that," concluded the young officer with a smile.
"How did yours first show itself?"
"I hardly know. I used to be subject to sudden attacks of faintness; but I am not sure that they had anything to do with the disease itself."
Just what Maude was becoming subject to! She had told him of a fainting-fit in London; had told him of another now.
"I suppose the doctors warn you against sudden shocks, Bob?"
"More than against anything. I am not to agitate myself in the least; am not to run or jump, or fly into a temper. They would put me in a glass case, if they could."
"Well, we'll see what skill can do for you," said Hartledon, rousing himself. "I wonder if a warmer climate would be of service? You might have that without exertion, travelling slowly."
"Couldn't afford it," was the ingenuous answer. "I have forestalled my pay as it is."