Jan leaned his long body over the counter, and brought his face nearly on a level with Lionel's, speaking slowly and impressively—
"If she goes, Lionel, it will kill her."
Lionel rose to depart. He was on his way to Verner's Pride. "I called in to tell you this, Jan, and to ask you to step up and remonstrate with her."
"Very well," said Jan. "Mark me, Lionel, she must not go. And if there's no other way of keeping her away, you, her husband, must forbid it. A little more excitement than usual, and there'll be another vessel of the lungs ruptured. If that happens, nothing can save her life. Keep her at home, by force, if necessary: any way, keep her."
"And what of the excitement that that will cause?" questioned Lionel. "It may be as fatal as the other."
"I don't know," returned Jan, speaking for once in his life testily, in the vexation the difficulty brought him. "My belief is that Sibylla's mad. She'd never be so stupid, were she sane."
"Go to her, and see what you can do," concluded Lionel, as he turned away.
Jan proceeded to Deerham Court, and had an interview with Mrs. Verner. It was not of a very agreeable nature, neither did much satisfaction ensue from it. After a few recriminating retorts to Jan's arguments, which he received as equably as though they had been compliments, Sibylla subsided into sullen silence. And when Jan left, he could not tell whether she still persisted in her project, or whether she gave it up.