"Yes. Your servants were getting alarmed." He smiled. "But there is no need for alarm now. What you want is a long rest. You have been overtiring yourself, perhaps?"
A peculiar smile, which was mocking and yet sad, curved her lips for a moment. Then she said quietly: "Perhaps I have overtired myself a little lately. But it was quite unavoidable."
"I see." Something about this speech puzzled Anstice, and for a moment he was rather at a loss to know what to say in reply.
She did not wait for him, however.
"Do you think I shall faint again? These faints are so unpleasant--really I don't think"--she paused, and when she resumed her voice sounded still deeper, with a true contralto note--"I don't think even death itself can be much more horrible. The sensation of falling, of sinking through the earth----"
She broke off, and he hastened to reply.
"I don't think you need anticipate any further trouble to-night. I suppose you have had your heart sounded?"
Again she smiled; and once more he could have sworn there was mockery in her smile.
"Yes. But I don't think my heart is wrong. It--it is due to other causes----"
She stopped abruptly as the door opened, and the woman came in, carrying the hot-water bottle for which she had been sent.
"That you, Tochatti?" She seemed to welcome the interruption. "Thank you so much." She let the servant fuss over her for a moment, then turned to Anstice. "You see," she said, "I am well looked after."
"I am glad you are," he rejoined promptly. "You know you are really in need of a little care at present. If you will allow me, I should like to sound your heart myself."
She acquiesced rather wearily; and having satisfied himself that the state in which he found her was due rather to weakness than to any specific disease, he turned to the strangely named woman, whom he now guessed to be a foreigner, and gave her a few directions for the night.
"I'll see to it, sir," she said quietly; and Anstice knew his orders would be faithfully carried out.
"Well, I can't do you any good by staying," he said, bending over the bed and holding out his hand. "But send for me if you want me, won't you? And I'll look in to-morrow to see how you are."
"One moment." Her hand in his felt strangely alive in spite of her recent unconsciousness. "Put on a little more light, please, Tochatti. I should like to see"--she spoke without any embarrassment--"to what sort of person I am indebted this evening."