“Isn’t he a dear?” she whispered, and he bent over and reverently touched her forehead with his lips.
“You must not talk,” the nurse said firmly.
“Just a few words more,” Lady Mildred said, and her eyes were fixed on her husband.
Gaunt gave a little gasp at what he saw in them. There was something akin to love, and he bent down eagerly to hear what she was about to say.
“I thought I was dying, John. I imagined that my soul had left my body when you came and took me by the hand—it was you, John; and yet you were very different. Don’t laugh at me, dear, but it almost seemed as though an angel were by my side. Your face was very beautiful, and your eyes shone with a strange light. And as you held my hand I felt that I was not dead, but that I must struggle to live. Your lips moved and uttered strange words of prayer. I struggled to live, and then—I can remember no more. But wasn’t it a funny dream? Just think of it—John Gaunt an angel!” she whispered whimsically.
“Mr. Gaunt, I must ask you to leave the room at once. It is essential that my patient should rest,” the nurse said severely.
“Run away, dear. I want to get well,” and Lady Mildred turned to her baby.
Gaunt once more kissed his wife, and then, with a sense of awe, his son.
His step was buoyant as he walked to his room. His valet, drowsy-eyed, rose to perform his nightly duties, but was summarily dismissed. But Gaunt had no wish for bed, for he knew only too well that sleep was far away. There was so much to be thought over—the wonderful love that he had seen in his wife’s eyes, and a few hours ago he had imagined that she was lost to him. A shudder shook him at the memory of it, and then his mind naturally turned to the vow that he had made. Now that his was relieved of immediate anxiety about Lady Mildred, he had time to think what it really meant.
He had promised that every action of his life should be in keeping with the teachings of Christ. There could be no shuffling from the issue, for a solemn bargain had been made. God had fulfilled His part, and the rest remained with himself. A grim smile twitched at his mouth as he began to understand the revolution to which he was bound. Slowly memory was returning and his thoughts went back to his boyhood.