But--_are_ you? Carron and mother think
so."
"Do they, Tommy? Well--I love him dearly--and so do you, don't you?"
"I don't mean _that_," he returned, with a gesture of impatience; "I
mean the way people are who are going to marry each other."
His eyes, so huge in his wasted face, looked eagerly at her.
"Carron and mother think you do," he repeated, "and it makes me sorry."
She did not answer for a long time, and then she said humbly, not
knowing how far he understood that whereof he spoke, and therefore
obliged to feel her way, "Tommy dear--you forget _petite mere_."
"No, I don't--but she is _old_."
"She is younger than he."
But ill though he was, Tommy's sense of humour was still alive. "_That_
doesn't matter! Oh, Bick, darling, I am so tired! And I do hope you
aren't--I mean, _that_."
So, of course, she lied, and the little boy went to sleep, his hand in
hers.
When, an hour later, she went to her room, she found a wire from Theo,
announcing their arrival in London, and in spite of herself her spirits
rose. Things must be better now that _he_ was near her.
But things were not better, and the doctor, the next morning, looked
very grave.
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