"Never harder in all my life," said the other, placing his hand on his side, as though still suffering from the effects of his unusual speed.
After a while he sat up and said, "I was pretty tired to begin with. I had been wandering about all the afternoon, and when I found myself near home I made up my mind not to budge again for the night. I found a letter waiting for me, and I have come over about that letter." He ceased to speak, and suppressed the excitement which was shaking him.
"A letter!" said Bramwell, observing for the first time that something very unusual lay behind the manner of the other. "It must have been a letter of great importance to bring you out again, and at such a rate, too." He looked half apprehensively at his visitor.
"It was a letter of importance."
A spasm of pain shot over the face of Bramwell, and his brows fell. "A letter of importance that concerned me?" he asked in a faint voice.
"Well," after a pause, "partly."
Bramwell's lips grew white, and opened. He scarcely breathed his next question: "From her?"
"O, no!" answered Ray quickly.
"About her?"
"No."