“I have no doubt he will be willing to do that--or if it is not possible, I am sure he will promise to call you if any change for the worse occurs.” “Oh, you won’t believe in me even now! You don’t think I could be brave even for him. If it was to do him good, I could----” “Your seeing him now could do him no possible good, and the sight would haunt you for ever. I think you don’t quite trust me, do you? Try to think of me as a friend, as one who would a thousand times rather see you happy with the man you loved than unhappy with himself. And perhaps”--he hesitated a little--“you may like to know that you have lifted a weight from my mind to-night. I confess it seemed to me a cruel thing when you broke off our engagement without any special reason, but now I know that you love some one else, I feel it was quite natural and right.” Mabel saw his meaning dimly. The sting of her treatment of him had lain in the feeling that though there was no one else she preferred, she valued so lightly the love he offered that she refused even to tolerate it. Now his self-respect was restored. It was for a tangible rival, not for freedom in the abstract, that she had cast him off. CHAPTER XXIII. AN ABDICATION. “Mab, are you awake?” “Go away; I hate you!” was the muffled reply. Mabel had thrown herself, dressed, upon her bed, and her face was buried in the pillow. She shook off Flora’s hand angrily from her shoulder as she spoke. “Why, Mab, I only wanted to tell you---- What have I done?” Mabel sat up and pushed back her hair. “They let you go and help with him,” she said venomously, “and they kept me out. Dick called you--I heard him myself. And they wouldn’t let me come. Eustace held my hands. And you went--and helped them.” “I didn’t do anything but hold things for them, really. Dr Tighe did it all, and your brother helped him. I had to go when they called me.” “Did he look at you--recognise you? If he did, I’ll never forgive you.” “No, not a bit. But, Mab----” “I’m glad of that, at any rate. And you came to say I might go to him now?” “Yes, Mr Burgrave spoke to Dr Tighe. But don’t say you’re glad he didn’t look at me. It will make you miserable all your life to have even thought it.” “Why, what is the matter?” asked Mabel impatiently, as Flora barred her way to the door. “I can’t let you go into the room without realising it. His--his hair is all burnt off, Mab, and he’s fearfully scorched. You can’t see anything but bandages, and he is quite insensible.” “It’s only the shock. He must come round soon.” “That’s not all. I must tell you. The explosion seems to have paralysed all his faculties. He is deaf and dumb and blind--for the time.” “Oh, for the time, of course. But he won’t be deaf when I speak to him. Don’t keep me here, Flora. I want to wake him.”