I did not particularly wish to be good-natured; nevertheless, at the time specified I took the tea to Jack. He sat up when I entered the room; there were feverish spots on his cheeks. "Bother that tea!" he exclaimed. "Put it down, and shut the door, Rosamund. Now come over, and sit near me. If I don't tell you what is the matter, I shall go mad." CHAPTER FOUR. BORROWED! I sat down at once by Jack's bedside. "What are you going to tell me?" I asked. "How prosaic you are, Rose." "Well, you never like me to make a fuss." "That is true, and no doubt you will act sensibly in the present emergency. It is nice to be pitied, and affection is of value, but sense, oh yes, unquestionably common sense comes first of all." I could not help gazing at Jack with wide-open round eyes while he was speaking. "You never in your whole life asked me to show feeling or affection," I managed to gasp out. "What do you mean by regretting it now? Your head must be wandering." "Well, well, Rose, perhaps it is. It certainly aches badly enough to account for any vagaries in my speech. But now to business--or rather to the kernel of the matter. Rose, I am going to be very ill, _very_ dangerously ill--do you understand?" "I hope I don't, Jack. You have a bad headache, which will soon get better." "I repeat, I am going to be dangerously ill. I have taken fever. I know the symptoms, for I have watched them in another." "In another? Whom do you mean? When have you been with a fever-stricken patient?" "You will start when you hear my next words. I have been nursing my wife through fever." "Jack--your wife! Are you married? Oh, Jack!" "Well, go on, Rosamund. Get over your astonishment. Say, `Oh Jack!' as often as you like, only believe in the fact without my having to repeat it to you. I am married. My wife has scarlet fever; I have nursed her till I could hold up no longer, and now I have taken it myself." I looked full into my brother's face. It was flushed now, and his brown eyes were bright. He was a big fellow, and he looked absolutely handsome as he sat up in bed with the fever gleam shining through his eyes, and a certain sad droop about his still boyish mouth. I own that I never found Jack so interesting before. He had behaved very badly, of course, in marrying any one secretly, but he was the hero of a romance. He had feeling and affection. I quite loved him. I bent forward and kissed him on his cheek. "Go on," I said. "You want me to help you. Tell me all the story as quickly as you can." "But you will shrink from me when you know all." "No, I promise that I won't. Now do go on."