Jimmy hesitated.
"I—I am engaged to Miss Wyatt," he said. "I hope—I hope there is nothing serious the matter?"
The doctor glanced back over his shoulder. Jimmy's eyes instinctively turned in the same direction; he could see Christine on her knees beside the bed in the darkened room.
"Mrs. Wyatt is dying, I regret to say," the doctor said; he spoke in a low voice, so that his words should not reach Christine. "It's only a question of hours at most. I've done all I can, but nothing can save her. It's heart trouble, you know; she must have been suffering with it for years."
Jimmy Challoner stood staring at him, white-faced—stunned.
"Oh, my God!" he said at last. He was terribly shocked; he could not believe it. He looked again to where Christine knelt by the bed.
"Does she—Christine—who is to tell her?" he asked incoherently.
The doctor shook his head.
"I should suggest that you——" he began.
Jimmy recoiled. "I! Oh, I couldn't. . . . I——" He broke off helplessly. He was thinking of the old days down at Upton House; the great kindness that had always been shown to him by Christine's mother. There was a choking feeling in his throat.