"We don't really know," said Mrs. Houghton; "and she mustn't be worried with questions, the doctor says. You see, she got dripping wet, somehow, and then had a long trolley ride--and she had a cold to start with--" "I'll just crawl upstairs, and see if she's awake," said Maurice. "I won't disturb her." As he started softly upstairs, Mrs. Newbolt opened the dining-room door a crack, and peered in at Mary Houghton. "Did you tell him?" she said, in a wheezing whisper. Mrs. Houghton shook her head. "Well, I can tell you who won't tell him," said Eleanor's aunt; "me! To tell a man that his wife--" "Hush-sh!" said Mrs. Houghton; "he's coming downstairs. Besides, we don't know that she did--" The dining-room door closed softly on the whispered words: "Puffect nonsense. Of course we know." Maurice, tiptoeing into Eleanor's room, thought she was asleep, and was backing out again, when she opened drowsy eyes and said, faintly, "Hullo." He bent over to kiss her. "Well, you're a great girl, to cut up like this when I'm away from home!" She smiled, closed her eyes, and he tiptoed out of the room.... Back again in the parlor, he began, "Mrs. Houghton, for Heaven's sake, tell me the whole thing!" He wasn't anxious now; as far as he could see, Eleanor was "all right"--just sleepy. But what on earth-- She told him what she knew; what she suspected, she kept to herself. But she might as well have told it all. For, as he listened, his face darkened with understanding. "The river? In Medfield? But, why--?" "Edith says you and she had a good deal of sentiment about the river, and--" "At six o'clock, on a March evening?" said Maurice. He put his hands in his pockets and began to walk up and down. Mrs. Houghton had nothing more to say; the room was so silent that the dining-room door opened a furtive crack--then closed quickly! Mrs. Houghton began to talk about Maurice's journey, and Maurice asked whether Eleanor could be taken home the next day--at which the dining-room door opened broadly, and Mrs. Newbolt said: "If you ask _me_, I'd say 'no'! If you want to know what I think, I think she's got a temperature! And she oughtn't to stir out of this house till it's normal." "Mrs. Newbolt," said Maurice, pausing in his tramping up and down the room; "why did Eleanor go out to Medfield?" "Perhaps she was lookin' for a cook! I--I think I'll go to bed!" said Mrs. Newbolt--and almost ran out of the room. Maurice looked down at Mrs. Houghton, and laughed, grimly: "You might as well tell me?"