To which Mrs. Derinzy replied with some sharpness that Captain Derinzy was not endowed with susceptible nerves, and that he was not easily alarmed by any illness except his own. They went out together, and George took leave of Mrs. Derinzy at the door of Paul's lodgings, having ascertained that the doctor had again seen the patient, and pronounced that there was no change to be expected in his condition for some time. He lingered for a moment until Mrs. Derinzy had begun to ascend the stairs under convoy of a maid, and then he turned away, hoping for favourable results from this strange and momentous meeting between Daisy and Paul's mother; and glad on his own account that a rupture between himself and the Derinzys, which his interference had appeared to render imminent, was at least postponed. There was no characteristic of Daisy's more pronounced than her self-control. When the maid gently opened the door of the sick-room, and whispered the words "Mrs. Derinzy," she understood all that had taken place, and was equal to the emergency. She disengaged her hand from Paul's unconscious clasp, and rose. Standing in an attitude of simple easy dignity by her son's bedside, Paul's mother saw her first, and felt, though she was not a bright woman in general, an instant conviction that George's story was perfectly true, and that there was nothing about this remarkable-looking "young person," whose handsome face was absolutely strange to her, and yet suggested, as it had done in George's case, an inexpressible association. Their respective salutations were polite but formal. Daisy spoke first. "Will you take this chair?" she said, indicating her own. "You will be able to see him better from that side. I am happy to say he is going on favourably." "Thank you, thank you," returned Mrs. Derinzy, in a fidgety whisper; and she took the proposed place. Then came a silence, interrupted only by an occasional faint moan from Paul. The presence of Mrs. Derinzy did not deter Daisy from the punctual fulfilment of her self-imposed duties; and as the mother watched her diligent ministering to the invalid, watched it helplessly--for Mrs. Derinzy was a perfectly useless person in a sick-room--she could maintain this reserve no longer, and broke through it by anxious questions, to which the other replied with ready respectful self-possession.