“It’s to Johnnie,” she explained. “He called immediately after you’d gone, but I told the nurse to say I couldn’t see him. He’s just sent me a note... What did the doctor say, Eric?”
“He didn’t add much to what he told me last night. Do you want me to read this, Ivy?”
“I think you’d better. I told Johnnie that I didn’t know what I was saying last night, when I promised to marry him. I’ve begged him not to worry me—”
Eric fingered the letter without reading it.
“If I told you that the doctor didn’t know if I could marry even in two years, what would you say?,” he propounded.
“Even!...? What do you mean? Did he say that? Eric, tell me! You frighten me when you won’t say what’s the matter with you.”
He pulled a chair to the side of the bed and sat down, holding her hand.
“I can’t tell you anything very definite,” he answered. “But I’m trying to look at all possibilities. I feel responsible for you, Ivy. I want to think what’s the best for you. If Gaisford says I must never marry, what will you do?”
She looked at him with frightened eyes, and he saw that her lips were trembling. Two slow tears rolled down her cheeks and splashed on to his hand. So she had cried once at the opera, and her tears had melted him. Now they seemed to eat into his hand like acid.
“I shan’t die, if I can help it, Ivy,” he added. “If I did, or if I couldn’t marry you, what would you do? Would you marry Gaymer?”