"Yes, most certainly there was; but, my baby, heart trouble comes from various causes, and I really do not think your father's physical condition justifies any serious uneasiness. He is evidently alarmed, but nervous strain and mental worry are sufficient to produce all his symptoms, and you will find that retirement from congressional complications expedites recovery in such cases." The girlish form relaxed, and a hot cheek was pressed against the foster-mother's face. "Don't comfort me with false hopes, unless you are sure I am unduly frightened." "Listen to me. I am absolutely certain that Judge Kent's health need cause you no alarm in future. Now, shake off that nightmare, and go to sleep like a good child, or I will certainly dose you with bromide." She kissed her softly, and with an arm about her waist led her back to her bed. "Ma-Lila, I want to forget the last three weeks. Won't you help me?" CHAPTER XII "What is the urgent necessity? I have just held my afternoon mission service, and I am very tired. Noel, why are you so insistent?" "Perhaps it has been borne in upon my 'subliminal consciousness' that if you wait too long you may possibly regret it. Once or twice I have found profit in following a rule my old nurse taught me when I wore kilts: 'Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.' No 'daemon' squats at my ear, and I claim no mantic illumination, still I should be glad to know you will make that visit at once." "You fear the poor boy is dying?" "Not immediately, but he appears hopelessly ill, and needs all the kind words you may find yourself better able to utter than any one else. Moreover, it would be well that you should see his mother, who is away at work during the week, and as you expect to leave the city so soon, this will be the most suitable opportunity for you to meet her at home. Poor, fierce, bitter soul! She has no milk of human kindness left; it soured and has become acrid--intensely mordacious." "She belongs then to the unhappy class of frail women who go swiftly to utter wreck in all large cities, where sin is arrayed in rose color and gilt. Strange that the boy of such a creature should remind one of the infant St. John or a seraph of Angelico's." "Some fragments of her history lead me to believe that she is as trustworthy and pure as any woman to whom you preach. Her morality is beyond cavil, but theoretically she seems to have gone wild among the hedges and ditches of socialism." "You consider her a conscientious, good woman?" "As far as I can ascertain she lives irreproachably, bar associating with anarchists. I surmise some man has treated her cruelly, or she thinks so, and now she----" Mr. Herriott rose, looked at his watch, and laughed.