"My lady, he has not been very well since he came down. When he got here we remarked that he seemed low-spirited. In a few days he began to be feverish, and asked me to get him some lemonade made. Quarts of it he drank: cook protested there'd be a failure of lemons in the village. 'It is last year's fever back again,' said his lordship to me, speaking in jest. But, strange to say, he might as well have spoken in earnest, for it turns out to be the same sort of fever precisely." "Is he very ill?" "He is very ill indeed to-day," answered Mrs. Edwards. "Until this morning it was thought to be a light attack, no danger attending it, nor any symptom of delirium. But that has all changed, and this afternoon he is slightly delirious." "Is there--danger?" cried Blanche. "Mr. Hill says not, my lady. Not yet, at all events. But--here he is," broke off Mrs. Edwards, as the doctor's step was heard. "He will be able to explain more of the illness to your ladyship than I can." She left the room as Mr. Hill entered it. The same cheerful, hearty man that Blanche had known last year, with a fine brow and benevolent countenance. Blanche shook hands with him, and he sat down near her. "So you did not get the telegram," he began, after greeting her. "I did get it," answered Blanche, feeling rather ashamed to be obliged to confess it. "But I--I was ready, and I thought I would come all the same." "It is a pity," said Mr. Hill. "You must not let your husband see you. Indeed, the best thing you can do will be to go back again." "But why?" asked Blanche, turning obstinate. "What have I done to him that he may not see me?" "You don't understand, child," said the surgeon, speaking in his fatherly way. "His lordship is in a critical state, the disease having manifested itself with alarming rapidity. If he can be kept perfectly calm and still, its progress may be arrested and danger averted. If not, it will assuredly turn to brain-fever and must run its course. Anything likely to rouse him in the smallest degree, no matter whether it be pleasure or pain, must be absolutely kept from him. Only the sight of you might bring on an excitement that might be--well, I was going to say fatal. That is why I suggested to his lordship to send off the telegram." "You knew I was coming down, then?" said Blanche. "My dear, I did know; and---- But, bless me, I ought to apologize to your ladyship for my familiarity of speech," broke off the kindly doctor, with a smile. Blanche answered by smiling too, and putting her hand into his. "I lost a daughter when she was about your age, my dear; you put me in mind of her; I said so to Mrs. Edwards when you were here last autumn. She was my only child, and my wife was already gone. Well, well! But that's beside the present question," he added briskly. "Will you go back to town, Lady Level?" "I would rather remain, now I am here," she answered. "At least, for a day or two. I will take care not to show myself to Lord Level."