wholly left her. Dreaming or waking, the force of his personality
remained with her.

It must have been hours later, she reflected afterwards, that she heard
the Colonel's voice exclaim hoarsely over her head, "In heaven's name,
say she isn't dead!"

And, "Of course she isn't," came Eustace's curt response. "Should I be
carrying her if she were?"

She tried to open her eyes, but could not. They seemed to be weighted
down. But she did very feebly close her numbed hands about Eustace's
coat. Emphatically she did not want to be handed over like a bale of
goods to the Colonel.

He clasped her to him reassuringly, and presently she knew that he bore
her upstairs, holding her comfortably close all the way.

"Don't go away from me!" she begged him weakly.

"Not so long as you want me, little sweetheart," he made answer. But her
woman's heart told her that a parting was imminent notwithstanding.

In all her life she had never had so much attention before. She seemed to
have entered upon a new and amazing phase of existence. Colonel de Vigne
faded completely into the background, and she found herself in the care
of Biddy and the doctor. Eustace left her with a low promise to return,
and she had to be satisfied with that thought, though she would fain have
clung to him still.