At last she began to cry, softly at first, like a fretful weary child; and while Regina held her hands, essaying to soothe her, a shadow glided between the gas globe and the bed, and Mr. Palma stood beside the two.  He looked pale, anxious, and troubled, as his eyes rested sorrowfully on the fevered face upon the pillow, and he saw that the luxuriant hair had been closely clipped, to facilitate applications to relieve the brain.  The parched lips were browned and cracked, and the vacant stare in the eyes told him that consciousness was still a long way off.

But was there even then a magnetic recognition, dim and vague, of the person whom she regarded as the inveterate enemy of her happiness?  Cowering among the bedclothes, she trembled and said, in a husky yet audible whisper: 

“Will you hide us a little while?  Belmont and I will soon sail, and if Erle Palma and mamma knew it, they would tear me from my darling, and chain me to Silas Congreve, and that would kill me.  Oh!  I only want my darling; not the Congreve emeralds, only my Belmont, my darling.”

Something that in any other man would have been a groan, came from the lawyer’s granite lips, and Regina, who shivered at his presence, looked up, and said hastily: 

“Please go away, Mr. Palma; the sight of you will make her worse.”

He only folded his arms over his chest, sighed, and sat down, keeping his eyes fixed on Olga.  It was one o’clock before she ceased her passionate pleading for protection from those whom she believed intent upon sacrificing her, and then turning her face to the wail she became silent, only occasionally muttering rapid indistinct sentences.

For some time Mr. Palma sat with his elbow on his knee, and his head resting on his hand, and even in that hour of deep anxiety and dread, Regina realized that she was completely forgotten; that he had neither looked at nor spoken to her.

Nearly a half-hour passed thus, and his gaze had never wandered from the restless sufferer on the bed, when Regina rose and renewed the cold cloths on her forehead.  She counted the pulse, and while she still sat on the edge of the bed, Olga half rose, threw herself forward with her head in Regina’s lap, and one arm clasped around her.  Softly the girl motioned to her guardian to place the bowl of iced water within her reach, and, dipping her left hand in the water, she stole her fingers lightly across the burning brow.  Olga became quiet, and by degrees the lids drooped over the inflamed eyes.  Patiently Regina continued her gentle cool touches, and at last she was rewarded by seeing the sufferer sink into the first sleep that had blessed her during her illness.