some one being lost—and a wide and dark sea—and so forth. Sometimes he fancied that Nina was standing at the door, and he would appeal piteously to her, and then sink back with a sigh, as if convinced once more that it was only a vision. The Winstead people took apartments for themselves at a hotel in Half-Moon Street; but of course they spent nearly all their time in this sitting-room, where they could do little but listen to the reports of the doctors, and wait and hope.
In the afternoon Mangan said,
"Francie, you're not used to sitting in-doors all day; won't you come out for a little stroll in the Park over there?"
"And I'm sure you want a breath of fresh air as much as any one, Mr. Mangan," the old lady said. "What would my boy have done without you all this time?"
Francie at once and obediently put on her things, and she and Maurice went down-stairs and crossed the street and entered the Park, where they could walk up and down the unfrequented ways and talk as they pleased.
"I suppose you will be going down to the House of Commons almost directly?" she asked.
"Oh, no," he answered. "I've begged off. I could not think of getting to work while Linn is so ill as that."
"Do you know what I have been thinking all day, Maurice?" she said, gently. "When I saw you with the doctors, and when I heard of all you have done since Saturday morning—well, I could not help thinking that there must be something fine about Lionel to have secured him such a friend."
He looked at her with some surprise.
"But you have been his friend—all these years!" he said.