"Not this. I shall be better of this directly. It is my side. I'll tell you about it when the faintness has passed. I thought there was no hope for me. I know it now."
He was leading her gently, by slow steps, towards the house. "How is Mark? Is he here too?" he asked.
"Not Mark. He cannot come, you know."
"Is he getting on?"
"Oh, Oswald! getting on! There's no practice; and we have not a penny-piece; and--I--I am dying. Oh, if I had not to die abroad! If Mark could but come to me."
"Where are you staying?" he asked after a pause.
"Watton gave me shelter. It was late when the boat got up, too late to go on to my aunt Bettina's, and I called at Watton's, and asked her to take me in. Oswald!--Oswald!--"
"What?" he asked, for she had dropped her voice, and her utterance seemed to be impeded by emotion.
"I heard the bell toll out for Prince Albert! I was close to it!"
"Ah!"