I think it was that day that Dr. Burnet informed Katherine that her father had symptoms of illness more or less serious. He hoped that he might be able to stave off their development, and Mr. Tredgold might yet have many years of tolerable health before him. “But if I am right,” he said, “I fear he will not have the calm life he has had. He will be likely to have sudden attacks, and suffer a good deal, from time to time. I will always be at hand, of course, and ready night and day. And, as I tell you, great alleviations are possible. I quite hope there will be many intervals of comfort. But, on the other hand, a catastrophe is equally possible. If he has any affairs to attend to, it would perhaps be--a good thing--if he could be persuaded to--look after them, as a matter of prudence, without giving him any alarm.” Such an intimation makes the heart beat of those to whom the angel of death is thus suddenly revealed hovering over their home; even when there is no special love or loss involved. The bond between Mr. Tredgold and his children was not very tender or delicate, and yet he was her father. Katherine’s heart for a moment seemed to stand still. The colour went out of her face, and the eyes which she turned with an appealing gaze to the doctor filled with tears. “Oh, Dr. Burnet!” she said. “Don’t be alarmed; there is nothing to call for any immediate apprehension. It is only if you want to procure any modification--any change in a will, or detail of that kind.” “You mean about Stella,” she said. “I don’t know what he has done about Stella; he never tells me anything. Is it necessary to trouble him, doctor? If he has not changed his will it will be all right; if he has destroyed it without making another it will still be all right, for some one told me that in that case we should share alike--is that the law? Then no harm can come to Stella. Oh, that we should be discussing in this calm way what might happen--after!” Two big tears fell from Katherine’s eyes. “If the worst were to happen even,” she said; “if Stella were left out--it would still be all right, doctor, so long as I was there to see justice done.” “Dear Katherine!” he said, just touching her hand for a moment. She scarcely perceived in her agitation that he had left out the prefix, and the look which he gave her made no impression on her preoccupied mind. “You will remember,” he said, “that I am to be called instantly if anything unusual happens, and that I shall always be ready--to do the best I can for him, and to stand by you--to the end.” CHAPTER XXXI.