Page:The time spirit; a romantic tale (IA timespiritromant00snaiiala).pdf/223

 *riet came into the room she bore a small tray containing a wine-glass, a teaspoon, and a bottle of medicine. At the sight of these the Duke made a grimace like a petulant child.

"I am sure the new medicine does you a great deal of good." The tone was quite maternal in its tenderness.

"You think so?" The words were dubious; all the same her voice and look seemed to have an odd power of reassurance.

"Oh, yes, I think there can be no doubt of it." She measured the dose gravely.

"Well, I take your word, I take your word." And he drank the bitter draught.

She put back the glass on the tray, but as she was about to leave the room she was abruptly detained. "Don't go," he said. "Sit and let us talk a little."

She sat down.

"Did you know," he said, and the unexpectedness of the words threw her off her guard, "that I have just had a visit from—from your niece?"

"Mary!" She clutched her dress. "Mary—here!" A sudden tide of crimson flowed in the startled face. But the next instant it had grown white. "No, I didn't know," she said. And then, her soul in her eyes, she waited for his next words.

There was one stifling moment of silence, then he said: "Of course you know what is in my mind?"

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

While he searched his memory silence came again, and now it had the power to hurt them both. "Haven't you always led me to believe," he said in a voice of curious intensity, "that she was a nurse in a hospital?"