“Is the fellow drunk?” said Mr. Rangely.
Victoria's answer was a little cry which startled him, and drew his look to her. She had touched her horse with the whip, and her eyes had widened in real alarm.
“It's Hilary Vane!” she exclaimed. “I—I wonder what can have happened!”
She handed the reins to Mr. Rangely, and sprang out and flew to Hilary's side.
“Mr. Vane!” she cried. “What's the matter? Are you ill?”
She had never seen him look so. To her he had always been as one on whom pity would be wasted, as one who long ago had established his credit with the universe to his own satisfaction. But now, suddenly, intense pity welled up within her, and even in that moment she wondered if it could be because he was Austen's father. His hands were at his sides, his head was fallen forward a little, and his face was white. But his eyes frightened her most; instead of the old, semi-defiant expression which she remembered from childhood, they had in them a dumb suffering that went to her heart. He looked at her, tried to straighten up, and fell back again.
“N—nothing's the matter,” he said, “nothing. A little spell. I'll be all right in a moment.”
Victoria did not lose an instant, but climbed into the buggy at his side and gathered up the reins, and drew the fallen lap-robe over his knees.
“I'm going to take you back to Fairview,” she said. “And we'll telephone for a doctor.”
But she had underrated the amount of will left in him. He did not move, though indeed if he had seized the reins from her hands, he could have given her no greater effect of surprise. Life came back into the eyes at the summons, and dominance into the voice, although he breathed heavily.