"Yes? And don't you find her improving?--gradually, of course. That constitutional languor is not shaken off in a hurry. But surely you think her improving--brightening--" "Brightening with the light that never shone on earth or sea. God help me! I--I--am the merest child, the veriest coward, the--" He made a great effort, and stifled the sob that had well-nigh broken his voice. "Mr. Sheldon," he continued quietly, "I believe your stepdaughter is dying." "Dying! Good heavens!--my dear Hawkehurst, this alarm is most--most premature. There is no cause for fear--at present, no cause--I give you my word as a medical man." "No cause for alarm at present? That means my darling will not be taken from me to-night, or to-morrow. I shall have a few days breathing-time. Yes, I understand. The doom is upon us. I saw the shadow of death upon her face to-day." "My dear Hawkehurst--" "My dear Sheldon, for pity's sake don't treat me as if I were a woman or a child. Let me know my fate. If--if--this, the worst, most bitter of all calamities God's hand--raised against me in punishment of past sins, sinned lightly and recklessly, in the days when my heart had no stake in the game of destiny--can inflict upon me; if this deadly sorrow is bearing down upon me, let me meet it like a man. Let me die with my eyes uncovered. O, my dearest, my fondest, redeeming angel of my ill-spent life! have you been only a supernal visitant, after all, shining on me for a little while, to depart when your mission of redemption is accomplished?" "Powers above!" thought Mr. Sheldon, "what nonsense these sentimental magazine-writers can talk!" He was in nowise melted by the lover's anguish, though it was very real. Such a grief as this was outside the circle in which his thoughts revolved. This display of grief was unpleasant to him. It grated painfully upon his nerves, as some of poor Tom Halliday's little speeches had done of old, when the honest-hearted Yorkshireman lay on his deathbed; and the young man's presence and the young man's anxiety were alike inconvenient. "Tell me the truth, Mr. Sheldon," Valentine said presently, with suppressed intensity. "Is there any hope for my darling, any hope?" Mr. Sheldon considered for some moments before he replied to this question. He pursed-up his lips and bent his brows with the same air of business-like deliberation that he might have assumed while weighing the relative merits of the first and second debenture bonds of some doubtful railway company.