She lay and watched him while the great tears gathered and ran down her wasted face.

He came back to her at length and saw them.  He stood a moment looking downwards, then knelt beside her and very tenderly wiped them away.

“My dear,” he said softly, “you mustn’t ever cry again.  It breaks my heart to see you.  If you want Eustace, he shall come to you.  Dinah was speaking to me about it only a short time ago.  She will not stand in the way of his coming.  In fact, I gathered that if you wish it, she wishes it also.”

“That is so like little Dinah,” whispered Isabel.  “But, Stumpy, do you think we ought to let her face that?”

“I shall be here,” he said.

“Oh, yes, dear.  You will be here.”  She regarded him wistfully.  “Stumpy, don’t’—­don’t let yourself get bitter against Eustace!” she pleaded.  “You have always been so splendid, so forbearing, till now.”

Scott’s lips were stern.  “Some things are hard to forgive, Isabel,” he said.

“But if I forgive—­” she said.

His face changed; he bowed his head suddenly down upon her pillow.  “Nothing will give you back to me—­when you are gone,” he whispered.

Her hand was on his head in a moment.  “Oh, my dear, are you grieving because of that?  And I have been such a burden to you!”

“A burden beloved,” he said, speaking with difficulty.  “And you were getting better.  You were better.  He—­threw you back again.  He brought you—­to this.”

Her fingers pressed his forehead.  “Not entirely, Stumpy.  Be generous, dear!  It may have hastened matters a little—­only a very little.  And even so, what of it, if the journey has been shortened?  Perhaps the way has been a little steeper, but it has brought me more quickly to my goal.  Stumpy, Stumpy, if it weren’t for leaving you, I would go as gladly—­as gladly—­as a happy bride—­to her wedding.”

She broke off, breathing fast.

He lifted his head swiftly, and saw the shadow of mortal pain gathering in her eyes.  He commanded himself on the instant and rose.  Self-contained and steady, he found and administered the remedy that was always kept at hand.

Then, as the spasm passed, he stooped and quietly kissed the white forehead.  “Don’t trouble about me, dear!” he said.  “God knows I would not keep you from your rest.”

And with that calmly he turned and left her.

But Biddy, whom he sought a few moments later to send her to her mistress, saw in him notwithstanding his composure, an intensity of suffering that struck dismay to her honest heart.  “The Lord preserve us!” she said.  “But Master Scott has the look of a man with a sword in his soul!” She wiped her own tears away with a trembling hand.  “And what’ll he do at all when Miss Isabel’s gone,” she said, “unless Miss Dinah does the comforting of him?”

CHAPTER XXV

THE TRUSTY FRIEND