I waited in the corridor. Suddenly Vera came out, a handkerchief saturated with antiseptic before her mouth, to avoid infection.
Her face was pale and drawn, her eyes red from weeping. On seeing me, she began to sob bitterly; then she buried her face in her hands.
I did my best to comfort her, though it was a hard task. At last she spoke—“Go in to him—go in to him now, dear,” she exclaimed broken-heartedly. “He wants you alone—quite alone.”
The invalid was quite conscious when I entered, a handkerchief similar to Vera’s having been given me by a nurse. He was propped up with pillows into almost a sitting posture. The other bed in the side-ward was unoccupied, for it was being used for isolation. After what I had been told, I was surprised at his appearance, for he struck me as looking better than when I had last seen him. A faint smile of welcome flickered upon his lips as he recognised me. Then he grew serious.
Without speaking, he indicated a chair beside the bed. I drew it near, and seated myself.
“We are quite alone?” he whispered, looking slowly about the room. “Nobody is listening—eh? Nobody can hear us?”
“Nobody,” I answered quickly. A lump rose in my throat. It was dreadful to see him like that. Yet, even then, I could hardly realise I was so soon to lose my valued and dearest friend, who had been such a striking figure in the hunting-field.
He put out his thin hand—oh, how his arm had shrunk in those few days!—and let it rest on mine. It felt damp and cold. It chilled me. The moisture of death seemed already to be upon it.
“Listen, Dick, my boy,” he said very feebly. “I have much to tell you, and—and very little time to tell it in. But you are going to marry Vera, so it—so it’s only right that you should know. Ah, yes, I can trust you,” he said, guessing the words I had been about to utter. “I know—oh, yes, I know that what I say to you won’t make any difference to our long friendship. But even if it should,” he said, grimly, “it wouldn’t matter—now we are so very soon to part.”
I felt the wasted hand grip more firmly upon my wrist.