"The new medicine is not having any effect; the temperature has gone up;
the doctor said if it did so now it was a hopeless case. I must rouse
him in an hour to give him another dose and take the temperature again.
After that, if it is as high as I expect it to be, you can do anything
you like to him."

As she said the last words, she went back into the other room.

The hour passed slowly, and she came again and let the priest know in
almost the same words that he was free to act as he pleased. Then she
added abruptly--

"Do you mind telling me your name?"

"My name? Molyneux."

"Then are you any relation of Lord Groombridge?"

"I am his cousin."

"I have been at Groombridge." But the priest felt that the tone was not
in the least more friendly.

"Moloney won't suffer now," she went on, turning towards the door, "and
I think he will be conscious for a time."

Molly was giving up her self-imposed charge; she wanted to be off. With
the need for help no longer an attraction, Moloney had almost ceased to
interest her; he would remain only as part of the darker background of
her mind, as a dim figure among many in the dim coloured atmosphere of