“How good of you, Hal… how good of you!” she breathed, and Hal, on her knees by the couch, in an unsteady voice replied: “Oh, why didn’t you send for me sooner? Why didn’t you let me come here instead of going to Norway?” An hour later she went out to the little post office, and wired to London to know if she might remain away for a week. It was evident Lorraine was very ill indeed and needing the utmost care. During the day she seemed to grow steadily worse, and she could not bear Hal out of her sight. “I don’t know whether you are shocked or not,” she said to her once, “but if everything goes all right I shall not regret what I have done for one moment. I wanted something more real for the rest of my life than I have had in its beginning.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I wanted his child to live for.” With a caressing hand on the sick woman’s, Hal asked in a low voice: “Why isn’t he here taking care of you now? Where is your child’s father?” A swift surprise passed through Lorraine’s eyes, as if it had not occured to her Hal would not know the truth. Then she said, very softly, “Alymer.” “Ah!” The exclamation seemed wrung from Hal unconsciously, and after it her lips grew strangely rigid. “Hal,” Lorraine said weakly, “I’ve loved Alymer almost ever since I first saw him. I swore I would not harm his career, and I have not. I will not in future. But the child is his, and I thank God for it. I do not believe an illegitimate child with a devoted mother is any worse off than the legitimate child with a selfish, unloving one. That there is love enough matters the most. What can any child have better than a life’s devotion?” Later on she said: “This is his great week, Hal. In his last letter he tells me his big chance has come at last through Sir Philip Hall. We always hoped it would. It is the big libel case, and if Sir Philip chooses he can let him take a very prominent part. He will, I am sure of it. He is very interested in him, and he has given him this chance on purpose. Flip thinks it will lead to a great deal; and of course if so it is splendid for him.” Hal said very little. She was overcome at the revelation Lorraine had made, and seemed quite unable to grasp it. Meanwhile she waited fearfully for the crisis the doctor had told her was impending. She was expecting him to call again, and was relieved when at last he arrived bringing a pleasant-faced French nurse with him. She relinquished her post then, and waited for him anxiously downstairs. When he came he told her he must have another opinion at once, and Hal knew that something serious was wrong, and that he feared the worst. The next morning, when she saw Lorraine again, she understood that they had saved her life, but probably only for a few days at the most. Lorraine was almost too weak to speak, but she looked into Hal’s eyes, and in her own there was a dumb imploring. Hal leant down and murmured: “What is it, Lorry?… Do you want Alymer?”