"I cannot tell you! I saw--saw something, and I fell, and caught my leg against some timber, and I don't remember any more." "Saw something? What did you see?" There was a silence. "Were you frightened?" Rosa continued softly. Then another silence. "Yes," said Alresca at length, "I was frightened." "What was it?" "I say I cannot tell you. I do not know." "You are keeping something from me, Alresca," she exclaimed passionately. I was on the point of interfering in order to bring the colloquy to an end, but I hesitated. They appeared to have forgotten that I was there. "How so?" said Alresca in a curious whisper. "I have nothing to keep from you, my dear child." "Yes," she said, "you are keeping something from me. This afternoon you told Sir Cyril that you were expecting a misfortune. Well, the misfortune has occurred to you. How did you guess that it was coming? Then, to-night, as they were carrying you away on that stretcher, do you remember what you said?" "What did I say?" "You remember, don't you?" Rosa faltered. "I remember," he admitted. "But that was nonsense. I didn't know what I was saying. My poor Rosa, I was delirious. And that is just why I wished to see you--in order to explain to you that that was nonsense. You must forget what I said. Remember only that I love you." ("So Emmeline was right," I reflected.) Abruptly Rosa stood up. "You must not love me, Alresca," she said in a shaking voice. "You ask me to forget something; I will try. You, too, must forget something--your love." "But last night," he cried, in accents of an almost intolerable pathos--"last night, when I hinted--you did not--did not speak like this, Rosetta." I rose. I had surely no alternative but to separate them. If I allowed the interview to be prolonged the consequences to my patient might be extremely serious. Yet again I hesitated. It was the sound of Rosa's sobbing that arrested me. Once more she dropped to her knees. "Alresca!" she moaned. He seized her hand and kissed it. And then I came forward, summoning all my courage to assert the doctor's authority. And in the same instant Alresca's features, which had been the image of intense joy, wholly changed their expression, and were transformed into the embodiment of fear. With a look of frightful terror he pointed with one white hand to the blank wall opposite. He tried to sit up, but the splint prevented him. Then his head fell back. "It is there!" he moaned. "Fatal! My Rosa--" The words died in his mouth, and he swooned. As for Rosetta Rosa, I led her from the room. CHAPTER IV ROSA'S SUMMONS