"Indeed, no," said Neil quietly. "I only owned to keeping back the fact that Sir Denton was coming down till the morning of his visit, so as to save you from brooding over it and getting anxious." "Well, what is that but deceiving me as I say, and treating me as a child?" "Surely not, my dear father." "I say it is, and it is cruel. I want to trust you, but you all, even to Isabel, join in cheating me, for my good as you are pleased to call it." Neil glanced at the nurse, who met his eyes, but, quick as lightning the sick man raised his hand, half menacingly, at his son. "Hah!" he cried, "don't try to corrupt her, and induce her to join your conspiracy; I can read your looks--`Don't contradict him.' She is honest; I can trust her. You will tell me the simple truth, nurse, will you not?" he said, holding one hand over the back of the couch toward her. She stepped nearer, and took the extended hand. "Indeed, I will, sir," she said gently; and then, with a smile, "unless, sir, I were forbidden." "What?" he cried, withdrawing his hand. "There might be a crisis in your illness when your medical adviser felt it was absolutely necessary, for your own sake, to keep back something of your state." "Hah!" he cried bitterly, "all alike--all alike. I thought I could trust you." "You can trust me, sir, to be your faithful servant, who is striving to help your recovery." He looked at her with the lines about the corners of his eyes very deep, but her frank, ingenuous look disarmed him, his face softened, and he said gently: "Yes, I can trust you, nurse. God bless you for a good, patient soul. And now, tell me--there cannot be such a crisis as that of which you speak--surely I should feel something of it if impending--" He did not finish his sentence but looked piteously up at the nurse, whose smile of encouragement chased his dark thoughts away again, and he once more raised his hand. "Yes," he said gently. "You will tell me the truth. Sir Denton is coming down--to see me--to-day. It means that, though I do not suffer more, I am much worse?" "Indeed, no, sir; and you are agitating yourself without cause." "Agitating myself without cause," he muttered softly as he glanced at his son, and then quickly back at the candid face bent over him, while Neil's heart beat more heavily, and there was a dreamy sensation of intense joy at his heart as he saw how full of faith and trust his father seemed. "You are steadily getting better, sir," continued Elisia, and her soft, low voice was full of a tender sympathy for the broken man who clung to her hand. "Is that the truth?" he said, very slowly and impressively. "Don't you deceive me, it would be too cruel. You will tell me all?"