"It is I--your wife!--wife not in name only, but in love and trust." A smile of joy flitted across his worn face, and he strove to put out one weak hand. "Forgive," he said faintly, "forgive." "It is I who should ask forgiveness," she replied in a broken voice; "I was harsh and cold, my dearest, and I do ask your forgiveness. Hush do not say a word--you are very weak, and must not talk. Let me nurse you back to health again, and then I will strive to be a better wife to you than I have hitherto been." He said nothing, but lay on his pillows, with eyes shining with love, a contented smile on his lips, and fell asleep, still holding his wife's hand in his own. After this he mended quickly, for with the return of Alizon's affection the desire of life had come back, and each day he grew stronger because the vexed brain was now at rest, and the love of his wife was a better medicine than any drugs of the doctor. "You see," said Storge to Eustace on leaving the chamber one day when Guy had been pronounced convalescent, "what has cured him is not my medicines, but his wife's affection. Ah, Shakespeare was a wise man when he said, 'Thou canst not minister unto a mind diseased.' Love is the only cure there." "Lucky mind to have such a cure," replied Gartney with a sigh; "some minds have to bear their diseases till the end of life with no chance of being mended." Storge said nothing, but he looked at him curiously, for he half guessed the real state of the case, and sincerely pitied Eustace for his unhappy passion. "Poor fellow," he thought as he departed, "he has wealth, health, fame and popularity, yet he would give all these for what he will never obtain--the heart of that woman." Guy's complete recovery was now only a question of a few weeks, so Eustace, feeling that he could not keep up the pretence of indifference much longer, made up his mind to depart. With this idea he produced a letter from Laxton one evening when he was seated with Alizon by the bed of the convalescent. "I've just got a letter from my friend," he said cheerfully, "and he wants me to come back to England at once." "What for?" asked Guy quickly. "Oh, our African expedition, you know," replied Eustace, smoothing out the letter. "I put it off because of your illness, but now you are on the way to recovery I can leave you with safety in the hands of Alizon." "I never saw such a fellow," said Guy, fretfully. "Why on earth can't you stay at home, instead of scampering all round the world?" Eustace laughed, yet his mirth was rather forced. "I'm afraid I've got a strain of gipsy blood in me somewhere," he said, jokingly, "and I can't rest; besides, I really and truly prefer savages to civilized idiots of the London type. They're every bit as decent, and much more amusing." All this time, Lady Errington had remained silent in deep thought, but at the conclusion of Gartney's speech, she looked up with a grave face. "When do you start?" she asked quietly.