“Perhaps I know.”

“I will tell you if you are right.”

“It was to see her again—­your kindest friend—­and mine,” said Langholm, gently.

“Yes!  It was to see her again—­before I die!”

And the black eyes blazed again.

“You are not going to die,” said Langholm, with the usual reassuring scorn.

“I am.  Quite soon.  On your hands, I only fear.  And I have not seen her yet!”

“You shall see her,” said Langholm, tenderly, gravely.  He was rewarded with a slight pressure of the emaciated hand; but for the first time he suspected that all the scrutiny was not upon one side—­that the sick youth was trying to read him in his turn.

“I love her!” at last cried Severino, in rapt whispers.  “Do you hear me?  I love her!  I love her!  What does it matter now?”

“It would matter to her if you told her,” rejoined Langholm.  “It would make her very unhappy.”

“Then I need not tell her.”

“You must not, indeed.”

“Very well, I will not.  It is a promise, and I keep my promises; it is only when I make none—­”

“That’s all right,” said Langholm, smiling.

“Then you will bring her to me?”

“I shall have to see her first, and the doctor.”

“But you will do your best?  That is why I am here, remember!  I shall tell the doctor so myself.”

“I will do my best,” said Langholm, as he rose.

A last whisper followed him to the door.

“Because I worship her!” were the words.

CHAPTER XXV

A POINT TO LANGHOLM

“I am glad you have come back,” said Dr. Sedley with relief.  “Of course eventually he will require trained nursing, either here or somewhere else; there is only one end to such a case, but it needn’t come yet, unless he has another hemorrhage.  I understand you offered him your cottage while you were away, but there was some muddle, and he came before they were ready for him?  It was like your kindness, my dear fellow, only never you send another consumptive to the northeast coast or anywhere near it!  As to his seeing any ladies who like to look him up, by all means, only one at a time, and they mustn’t excite him.  Your return, for example, has been quite enough excitement for to-day, and I should keep him quiet for the next twenty-four hours.”

The doctor had called within an hour of the return of Langholm, who repeated these stipulations upstairs, with his own undertaking in regard to Rachel.  He would write that night and beg her to call the following day.  No, he preferred writing to going to see her, and it took up far less time.  But he would write at once.  And, as he went downstairs to do so then and there, Langholm asked himself whether an honorable man could meet the Steels again without reading to their faces the notes that he had made in London and conned in the train.