By the time he
was allowed to be carried to a sofa in the sitting-room which had been
arranged for him, July had well set in.
He had parted from his Cecilia with suitable things said upon either
side. Even in his misery and abasement, John Derringham was too assured
a spirit and too much a man of the world to have any hesitation or
awkwardness. Mrs. Cricklander had been all that was sympathetic. She
looked superbly full of vigor and the joy of life as she came to say
farewell.
"John, darling," she purred, "you will do everything you are told to by
the doctors while I am away, won't you?" and she caressed his forehead
with her soft hand. "So that I may not have to worry as dreadfully as I
have been doing, when I come back. It has made me quite ill--that is why
I must go to Carlsbad. You will be good now; so that I may find you as
strong and handsome as ever on my return." Then she bent and kissed him.
He promised faithfully, and she never saw the whimsical gleam in his
eyes, because for the moment having gained her end her faculties had
resumed their normal condition, which was not one of superlative
sensitiveness.
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