Five minutes afterwards he waved his handkerchief from the train at them as they made their way leisurely across the water-meadow. "You will be home in half an hour, and have a good rest," said Ned consolingly, as those beautiful eyes with the eternal hope in them looked into his with that vague dread growing to them. "Yes," she said cheerfully, "it was only the start." But ten minutes later in the car, she laid her hand suddenly on Ned's as it held the steering gear. "Oh, Ned!" she said, "I'm--I'm so afraid!" Her voice was an appeal, and he bent hastily to kiss the hand which clung to his, as it would have clung to any human being. "Cheer up!" he said huskily, "Nothing's going to go wrong! I'll have you home in no time; so let me steer straight, will you?" The little car swept along at top speed. She sat still, her face drawn and pale, her hands holding hard to the white folds of her dress. Twelve miles at least, allowing for speed limits through the town, and New Park close at hand; just in fact, round the corner. He made the calculation rapidly, and began to sound the hooter. "I shall take you in here," he said decisively, "and telephone to Ted. Then when you've had a good rest you can go home." The gates, set wide open at his signalling, slipped past in the growing dusk, a rabbit or two showed nimble across the smooth surface of the drive. "It will be best, perhaps," said Aura, with a catch in her breath. "Of course it will be best," he replied cheerfully, as he drew up in the wide portico. "The housekeeper, please!" he called, glad for once of the decorous hurry of obedience. "Take Mrs. Cruttenden, if you please, Mrs. Adgers, and let her rest for a little," he said to the dignified lady who appeared as if by magic. Then, only waiting to add in a lower voice, "and look after her; you understand," he was in the car again before it had had time to run down, and was off over a short cut to St. Helena's Hospital, which lay on the hill about three miles off. Thence he returned in twenty minutes with Sister Ann, leaving Dr. Ramsay to follow more leisurely. Finally, having sent the car in charge of a _chauffeur_ to bring Ted along, he sat in the library and smoked, feeling half derisive at the irony of fate. If he had indeed been Aura's husband, and the father of this coming child, what more could he have done?