She saw him change colour, and he stood motionless still.
"Do you remember," said Fleda, trembling even to her voice, "what Rutherford says about Providence 'not running on broken wheels?' "
He gave her no answer but the intent look of expectation. Its intentness paralysed Fleda. She did not know how to go on. She rose from her chair and hung upon his shoulder.
"Believe it now, if you can; for oh, dear Hugh! we have something to try it."
"It is strange my father don't come home," said he, supporting her with tenderness, which had very little strength to help it; "we want him very much."
Whether or not any unacknowledged feeling prompted this remark, some slight involuntary movement of Fleda's made him ask, suddenly
"Is it about him?"
He had grown deadly pale, and Fleda answered, eagerly
"Nothing that has happened to-day it is not anything that has happened to-day: he is perfectly well, I trust and believe."
"But it is about him?"