“How long has she been delirious?”

“Since just after I called you,” the girl replied.

“Did you notice anything unusual about her before that?  You said something over the telephone about her talking queerly.”

The nurse looked quickly over to the alcove where Lillian and I sat.  Dr. Pettit’s eyes followed her glance.  With a quick muttered exclamation he strode swiftly to where we sat and towered angrily above us.

“What does this mean?” he asked imperatively.  “Why are you here listening to this stuff?  It is abominable.”

“I agree with you, Dr. Pettit.  It is abominable, but she made Madge promise to stay,” Lillian said quietly.  She made an almost imperceptible gesture of her head toward the bed, and her voice was full of meaning.  He started, looked her steadily in the eyes, then nodded slightly as if asserting some unspoken thought of hers.

“Dicky darling,” the voice from the bed rose pleadingly, “don’t you remember how you promised me to take me away from all this, how we planned to go far, far away, where no one would ever find us again?”

Dr. Pettit turned almost savagely on me.

“Promise or no promise,” he said, “I will not allow this any longer.  You must go out of this room and stay out.”

I stood up and faced him unflinchingly.

“I cannot, Dr. Pettit,” I answered firmly.  “I must keep my promise.”

“Then I will get your release from that promise at once,” he said and strode toward the bed.

I watched him with terrified fascination.  Had he gone suddenly mad? 
What did he mean to do?

As Dr. Pettit turned from Lillian and me, and strode toward the bed where the sick girl lay, apparently raving in delirium, I called out to him in horror.

“Oh, don’t disturb that delirious, dying girl!”

I made an impetuous step forward to try to stop him when Lillian caught my arm and whirled me into a recess of the alcove.

“You unsuspecting little idiot,” she said, giving me a tender little shake that robbed the words of their harshness, “can’t you see that that girl is shamming?”

For a moment I could not comprehend what she meant; then the full truth burst upon me.  If what Lillian said were true, if the girl was pretending delirium that she might utter words concerning Dicky’s infatuation for her which would torture me, then it was more than probable, almost certain, in fact, that there was no word of truth in her pretended delirious mutterings.

Dicky was not faithless to me, as I had feared during the tortured moments in which I had listened to, the girl’s ravings.

The joy of the sudden revelation almost unnerved me.  I believe I would have swooned and fallen had not Lillian caught me.

“Listen,” she said in my ear, pinching my arm almost cruelly to arouse me, “listen to what Dr. Pettit is saying, and you’ll see that I am right.”