“I—I don’t know. They are very sick. The doctor is afraid”—
“Oh!” Ray groaned, at the stop she made. “Can I help—can’t I do something? May I come up?”
“Oh, yes,” she answered mechanically, and Ray was stooping forward to mount the stairs when he saw her caught aside, and Peace standing in her place.
“Don’t come up, Mr. Ray! You can’t do any good. It’s dangerous.”
“I don’t care for the danger,” he began. “Some one—some one must help you! Your father”—
“My father doesn’t need any help, and we don’t. Every moment you stay makes the danger worse!”
“But you, you are in danger! You”—
“It’s my right to be. But it’s wrong for you. Oh, do go away!” She wrung her hands, and he knew that she was weeping. “I do thank you for coming. I was afraid you would come.”
“Oh, were you?” he exulted. “I am glad of that! You know how I must have felt, when I came to think what I had said.”
“Yes—but, go, now!”