It was Lord Hemsworth. He stood in the doorway with the wan light of the morning behind him. His face looked pinched and aged. "He is better," he said. "He has recovered consciousness, and has spoken. The other doctor has arrived, and they think all will go well." And the two women who loved John clung and sobbed together. Lord Hemsworth looked fixedly at Di and went out. CHAPTER IV. "Toute passion nuisible attire, comme le gouffre, par le vertige. La faiblesse de volonte amene la faiblesse de tete, et l'abime, malgre son horreur, fascine alors comme un asile."--AMIEL. People said that John had a charmed life. The divergence of an eighth of an inch, of a hundredth part of an inch, of a hair's-breadth and the little bead that passed right through his neck would have pierced the jugular artery, and John would have added one more to the long list of names in Overleigh Church. As it was, when once the direction of the bullet had been ascertained, he was pronounced to be in little danger. He rallied steadily, and without relapse. People said that he bore a charmed life, and they began to say something more, namely, that it was an object to somebody that it should be wiped out. Men are not shot at for nothing. John was not an Irish landlord. Some one evidently bore him a grudge. Society instantly formed several more or less descreditable reasons to account for John's being the object of some one's revenge. Half-forgotten rumours of Archie's doings were revived with John's name affixed to them. Decidedly there had been some "entanglement," and John had brought his fate upon himself. Colonel Tempest, just returned from foreign travel, heard the matter discussed at his club. His opinion was asked as to the truth of the reports, but he only shrugged his shoulders, and it was supposed that he could not deny them. Di's, Lady Alice Fane's, and Miss Crupps' names were all equally associated with John's in the different versions of the accident. Colonel Tempest did not go to see his daughter. She had been telegraphed for the morning after the ice carnival by Mrs. Courtenay, who had actually developed with the thaw the bronchitis which she had dreaded throughout the frost. Di and Archie, whose leave was up, returned to town together for once. Archie had experienced a distinct though shamed pang of disappointment when John's state was pronounced to be favourable.