Her eye explained the broken sentences which there in the neighbourhood of other ears she dared not finish.
"He will be better after he has seen you," said Mr. Carleton gently.
"Yes--"
A very sorrowful and uncertain "yes," with an "if" in the speaker's mind which she did not bring out.
"Can you sing your old song yet,--" said Mr. Carleton softly,--
"'Yet one thing secures us. Whatever betide?'"
But Fleda burst into tears.
"Forgive me," he whispered earnestly,--"for reminding you of that,--you did not need it, and I have only troubled you."
"No sir, you have not," said Fleda,--"it did not trouble me--and Hugh knows it better than I do. I cannot bear anything to-night, I believe--"
"So you have remembered that, Mr. Carleton?" she said a minute after.