Their ordinary medical man was far away among the hills; his assistant had to be searched for, and came only after the lapse of two hours, by which time Rolfe had worked himself into a fever.  Whilst Mrs. Abbott, faint with agitation and weariness, took a hurried meal, he went to the bedside, and tried to learn whether Alma was suffering merely from shock, or had sustained an actual injury; but she still nursed her grievance against him, and would say very little.  Why did not the doctor come?  She wished to see the doctor; no one else was of any use.

’Go down and have lunch with Mrs. Abbott properly.  Do go, please; I hate all this fuss, and it’s quite unnecessary.  Let me be alone till the doctor comes.’

Before the arrival of Dr Evans’s assistant she again fainted, and upon that followed an attack of hysteria.  When at length the medical man had seen her, Harvey received an adequate, but far from reassuring, explanation of the state of things.  At nightfall Dr Evans came in person, and was with the patient for a long time.  He spoke less gravely of the case, offered a lucid diagnosis, and thought that the services of an ordinary nurse for a few days would meet every necessity.  Williams was sent with a hired vehicle to the market town, seven miles away, and late at night returned with the woman recommended.  Alma meanwhile had lain quietly, and the household at length went to rest without renewal of alarms.

Twice before dawn Harvey left his room and stepped silently to Alma’s door.  The first time, he heard low voices; the second, there was no sound.  When, about eight o’clock, he went down and out into the garden, he was surprised to meet Mrs. Abbott.  She had already seen the nurse this morning, and reported that all was going well.  Rolfe talked cheerfully again, and would not listen to his guest’s timid suggestion that she should take leave today.  Not a bit of it; she was to go down to the seashore and enjoy the sunshine, and worry herself just as little as possible.  At breakfast-time came a message from Alma to the same effect.  Mrs. Abbott was on no account to cut short her visit, and Harvey was to do his duty as host.  She herself, said Mrs. Rolfe, would be as well as ever in a day or two.

For all that, when the appointed day for the guest’s departure came, Alma still lay blanched and feeble, not likely to leave her bed for another week.  She was, however, in a remarkably cheerful frame of mind.  Having to start on her journey as early as half-past eight, Mrs. Abbott bade good-bye to her hostess the evening before, and nothing could have been kinder or more amiable than Alma’s behaviour.

‘Don’t bear a grudge against me for spoiling your holiday,’ she said, holding her guest’s hand and smiling brightly.  ’If I say all is for the best, perhaps you’ll understand me, and perhaps you won’t; it sounds pious at all events, doesn’t it?  We must see each other again, you know —­ here or somewhere else.  I’m quite sure we can be friends.  Of course, Harvey will go with you in the morning.’