About sunset, Aline, who had watched over him with hardly a moment's rest, left the room for a quarter of an hour, to listen to what the doctors had to say--there were four of them in the drawing-room below. When she and her husband entered the sick-room again, the old man had moved in his bed. He was lying on his side, his face to the windows that looked southward, and he had raised himself a little on his arm. There was a troubled gaze in his eyes, as of one who strains to see something that is unaccountably missing from his sight. He turned his head a little, as though to listen. Thus gazing, with an inward and spiritual vision only, at the bay that his eyes might never again see, and listening to the waves whose cadence he should hear no more, the troubled look faded into one of inscrutable peace, and he sank back into the hollow of his son's arm and passed away. * * * * * The next time that the doctor was in the house it was of a snowy night a few days after New Year's Day. It was half-past two o'clock in the morning, and Jacob Dolph--no longer Jacob Dolph the younger--had been pacing furiously up and down the long dining-room--that being the longest room in the house--when the doctor came down stairs, and addressed him with his usual unruffled precision: "I will request of you, Dolph, a large glass of port. I need not suggest to you that it is unnecessary to stint the measure, for the hospitality of this house is----" "How is she, doctor? For God's sake, tell me--is she--is she----" "The hospitality of this house is prover--" the precise doctor recommenced. "Damn the hospitality!" cried Jacob Dolph: "I mean--oh, doctor--tell me--is anything wrong?" "Should I request of you the cup of amity and geniality, Mr. Dolph, were there cause for anything save rejoicing in this house?" demanded the physician, with amiable severity. "I had thought that my words would have conveyed----" "It's all over?" "And bravely over!" And the doctor nodded his head with a dignified cheerfulness. "And may I go to her?" "You may, sir, after you have given me my glass of port. But remember, sir----" Dolph turned to the sideboard, grasped a bottle and a glass, and thrust them into the doctor's hand, and started for the door. "But remember, sir," went on the unperturbed physician, "you must not agitate or excite her. A gentle step, a tranquil tone, and a cheerful and encouraging address, brief and affectionate, will be all that is permitted." Dolph listened in mad impatience, and was over the threshold before the doctor's peremptory call brought him back. "What is it now?" he demanded, impatiently. The doctor looked at him with a gaze of wonder and reproach. "It is a male child, sir," he said. [Illustration] Jacob Dolph crept up the stairs on tiptoe. As he paused for a moment in front of a door at the head, he heard the weak, spasmodic wail of another Dolph. * * * * *