The judge looked waxily pallid; Hollis did not move; Paul, much less disturbed than any one, was already climbing the bank. It was perpendicular, and there was neither footing nor hold, but after one or two efforts he succeeded. When he reached the top, however, Cicely was gone. He went to her lodge; here he found her sitting quietly beside Jack's bed; she was alone, neither the nurse nor Porley was with her. Before he could speak, Eve appeared, breathless. "Where is the nurse, Cicely?" Paul asked, in his usual tone. "Do you mean that woman whom you have put over me? She has gone for a walk." "And Porley?" "You will find Porley at the big pine." "What is she doing there?" "I didn't want her about, so I tied her to the trunk," Cicely answered. "Probably she is frightened," she added, calmly. "Go and find her," said Eve to Paul. "I will stay here." "Have nothing to do with Paul Tennant, Eve," Cicely remarked. "He is almost a murderer. He didn't go to his brother; he let him die alone." "I shall not leave you," said Paul, looking at Eve's white cheeks. "Have you fallen in love with each other?" asked Cicely. "It needed only that." "I beg you to go," Eve entreated. Paul hesitated. "Will you promise not to leave this lodge until I come back?" "Yes." Paul went out. As he did so, he saw the judge approaching, leaning heavily on Hollis's arm. "It's nothing," Hollis explained. "The judge, he's only tuckered out; a night's rest is all he needs." "Take me to Cicely," the judge commanded. "Cicely ought to be quiet now," Paul answered in a decided voice. "Eve is with her, and they're all right; women do better alone together, you know, when one of them has hysteria." "Hysteria! Is that what you called it?" said the judge. "Of course. And it's natural," Paul went on:--"poor little girl, coming to herself suddenly here in the woods, only to realize that her husband is dead. We shall have to be doubly tender with her, now that she is beginning to be herself again." "You didn't mind it, then?" pursued the judge. He was relieved, of course--glad. Still it began to seem almost an impertinence that Paul should have paid so little attention to what had been to the rest of them so terrible. "Mind? Do you mean what she was saying? I didn't half hear it, I was thinking how I could get up that bank. And that reminds me there's something wrong with Porley; she's at the big pine. I am going out there to see. Cicely told me that she had tied her in some way." "If she did, the wench richly deserved it," said the judge, going towards his lodge, his step stiff and slow. "He came mighty near a stroke," said Hollis to Paul in an undertone. "Hadn't you better go with him, then?"