"Are you going to put that right?"
"I'm going to try. I've been talking to your old friend Dobbs. I saw his poor daughter, and I went into most of the cottages."
Somewhat to his dismay he saw the delicate face beside him quiver, and the eyes cloud. But the emotion was driven back.
"You're too late—for Bessie!" she said—how sadly! The accent touched him.
"The girl is really dying? Was it diphtheria?"
"She has been dying for months—and in such pain."
"It is paralysis?"
"After diphtheria. Did they show you the graves in the churchyard?—they call it the Innocents' Corner. Thirty children died in that village last year and the year before."
There was silence a little.
"I wonder what I can do," said Faversham, at last, reflectively. "I have been working out a number of new proposals—and I submit them to Mr. Melrose to-night."