'Tell the ladies I will be with them directly.'
The dying man was not to be balked. He evinced a degree of vigour which was altogether beyond anything he had previously shown.
'Let them come! Let them come!' he repeated.
He stretched out his hand, from which the pen dropped out unused, in such a condition of tremulous agitation that Hancock promptly laid him back upon the pillow.
'Gently! Gently! Don't excite yourself, my lord; be calm! What does he mean?' he asked me. I perforce explained.
'Miss Desmond is below, and wishes to know if she may come up.'
'Let her come!' gasped the invalid.
'Better humour him,' murmured Hancock.
'I will go down and speak to her.'
But when I prepared to go the patient shook his head at me in a frenzy of excitement; struggling all the while for breath in a fashion which it was not agreeable to witness. Hancock strove to soothe him.