Still she did not speak, and after a moment he spoke again.
"It is true that the man Ishmael Ameer was the last to be with him, but what happened at their interview it would be useless to ask—dangerous, perhaps, in the present state of public feeling."
She listened with complete self-possession and strong hold of her feelings, though her bosom heaved and her breathing was audible.
"So let us put away painful thoughts, Helena. After all, your father's end was an enviable one, and harder for us than for him, you know."
He looked steadily for a moment at her averted face and then said, in a husky voice—
"I'm sorry Lady Nuneham is so much of an invalid that she cannot come to see you. This is the moment when a mother——"
He stopped without finishing what he had intended to say, and then he said—
"I'm still more sorry that one who——"
Again he stopped, and then in a low, smothered, scarcely audible voice, he said hurriedly—
"But that is all over now. Good-night, my child! God help you!"