"I'm not very far away, but—"
"Then I don't think we need bother you to stay. We've got Doctor Hartley."
"I—I'm afraid I shall have to leave you to-morrow," said the young man, who had several times looked, almost with a sort of horror, at Mrs. Armine's ravaged face. "You see I'm with people at Assouan. I really came out to Egypt in a sort of way in attendance upon Mrs. Craven Bagley, who is in delicate health. And though she's much stronger—"
"Yes, yes!" Nigel interrupted. "Of course, go—go! I want peace, I want rest."
He drooped towards his wife. Suddenly she sat down beside him, holding his hand.
"Would you rather not be examined to-night?" she asked him.
"Examined!" he said, in a startled voice.
"Well, dearest, these doctors—"
Nigel, with a great effort, sat up as before.
"I won't be bothered to-night," he said, with the weak anger of an utterly worn-out man. "I—I can't stand anything more. I—can't—stand—" His voice died away.