"Oh, yes. He said he quite understood."
(Yet, a few minutes later when I saw Henry, and begged him to remember what the doctor had said about his heart, he exclaimed: "Fiddle! It's not my heart at all! It's my breath!" Oh, the ignorance of great men!)
"I also told him," the Wolverhampton doctor went on, "that he must not work so hard in future."
I said; "He will, though,—and he's stronger than any one."
Then I went round to the hotel.
I found him sitting up in bed, drinking his coffee.
He looked like some beautiful gray tree that I have seen in Savannah. His old dressing-gown hung about his frail yet majestic figure like some mysterious gray drapery.
We were both very much moved and said little.
"I'm glad you've come. Two Queens have been kind to me this morning. Queen Alexandra telegraphed to say how sorry she was I was ill, and now you——"
He showed me the Queen's gracious message.