"Yes, nurse."
"Mrs. Ford would like to see you, sir."
"To see me? Oh! Is she well enough?"
"Well, sir, she's not so well as she might be. But she says that it would do her good to see you. Only you musn't let her talk too much, nor yet you musn't stay too long."
"I won't stay too long."
He went upstairs. He paused for a moment outside the bedroom door. Then he entered the room.
"Geoff, I'm going to die!"
Her words so frightened him that, in the suddenness of his fear, he staggered backwards.
"To die!"
"All along I knew that I should. I knew it when I was writing that wicked book—the book which has won the prize, I mean. Perhaps that was why I wrote it. It is the best way out of the trouble. I should never have been the same wife to you again. I know you so well. But, Geoffrey, you won't refuse to accept a legacy from me when I am dead. It is the only thing I have ever had to give you. For the children's sake, and the little baby's sake, and mine."