"Of his old disease?"
She still kept her eyes on Santley's face.
"Perhaps. Did he complain to-night?"
"Yes; he said he was too ill to think of lying down."
"He used, no doubt, to inhale chloroform when the spasms were bad?"
"Always."
"Yes, I got the smell of chloroform. Well, one of these spasms may have been too severe; and now you know the worst, Mrs. Davenport."
She sat down on her chair and seemed about to faint. There was wine on the table. Santley poured some into a glass and made her drink it. After a while she became composed, and the look of eagerness and dread disappeared wholly from her face, and the red returned to her lips.
She was the first to speak. Her voice had regained all its old, firm serenity. Her face was calm and commanding. She looked, once more as though neither the onslaught of battle nor the wreck of worlds could disturb her.
"You, sir," she said, once more addressing Santley, "I have to thank for your promptness in coming at this hour to one whom you never even heard of before. And"--turning to Paulton--"I have to thank you most sincerely for your kindness in summoning the doctor for me in my extremity."