"Are you rested dear, at all? It is time for us to be going."
"Going!" he repeated, between sleeping and waking, "are we not at home?"
"No love, at Mr. Werner's."
He raised himself a little and looked at her.
"I think I have been asleep," he said. "Oh! now I remember, but I thought we were to stay here all night. It was arranged that we were, was it not?"
"Yes, dear, but I find it is not convenient for us to do so. Visitors have come, and we ought not to intrude under the circumstances. There is a cab at the door. Can you walk with my arm or shall I ring for assistance?"
He rose, still looking dazed and bewildered, and she put her arm round his body and he placed his arm round her neck; it was thus he had with weak and uncertain steps often paced his room at Homewood.
Trembling over the descent of each stair, she got him at length to the bottom of the last flight, and then beckoning one of the waiters, she asked him to help her husband to the door, while she herself searched for his top-coat and hat.
Whilst she was so engaged the butler appeared,
"Why, ma'am," he said, "you are surely never going back to Homewood to-night?"