"Fortune," repeated Mark. "I shall take one of those nice little boxes in the Champs Elysées. Some of them are charming. Or perhaps only part of one if--if Carine--O dear! it is hard for her that this luck did not fall in a year ago! I wonder," broke off Mark, passing to another phase of his future visions, "I wonder whether, if it were possible to get Caroline over to Paris now, the change might benefit her?"
"You think of residing in Paris?" said Oswald.
"Of course I do. Paris will be the centre of operations. Barker wants me over there at once; and the minute I join him I begin to draw at the rate of eight hundred a-year. Just to go on with, you know, until the money falls in."
"Mark," said Oswald, after a pause, "will it be of any use my saying a word of warning to you?"
"On what subject?" returned Mark, looking up with surprise.
"On this subject. It seems to me that you are falling into another delusion; that the--"
"No, it will not be of any use," burst forth Mark in strange excitement "I might have known beforehand that you'd turn out my enemy upon the point. If gold and diamonds were dropping down in a shower from the skies you'd not stretch forth your hand to catch them. There's a mist before your eyes, Oswald, that prevents you seeing these things in their proper aspect."
He began to pace the room as he spoke, chafing considerably Why was it that these little hints of warning awoke the irritation of Mark's spirit? Could there be an undercurrent of doubt in his mind whether Oswald was right and he wrong? However it might be, one thing was certain--that no warning, let it come from whom it would, could do any good with Mark.
As he turned to face them again, Sara entered. An expression of alarm was on her face, and she closed the door before speaking. She had come to say that Caroline appeared worse; altogether different from usual.
Mark ran up the stairs; Miss Bettina put down her knitting to follow. Sara turned to Oswald Cray.