Nevertheless Helen heard
them.
"Is--Ronnie--ill?" she asked, with trembling lips.
Dick came back.
"Ronnie is desperately ill, Mrs. West. But, now he is safely at home,
within easy reach of the best advice, we will soon have him all right
again. Don't you worry."
But "worry" scarcely expressed Helen's face of agonised dismay.
"Tell me--all," she said.
Dick sat down and told her quite clearly and simply the text of his
message to her through Aubrey, explaining and amplifying it with full
medical details.
"Any violent emotion, either of joy, grief or anger, would probably
have disastrous results. He apparently came to blows with your cousin
during the evening he spent at Leipzig. Ronnie gave him a lovely thing
in the way of lips. One recalls it now with exceeding satisfaction. When
I saw your cousin afterwards he appeared to have condoned it. But it may
account for his subsequent behaviour. Fortunately this sort of
thing--" Dick glanced about him appreciatively--"looks peaceful enough."
Helen sat in stricken silence.
"It augurs well that he was able to stand the pleasure of his
home-coming," continued Dr. Dick. "He must be extraordinarily better, if
you noticed nothing unusual. Possibly he slept during the
night-crossing. Also, I gave him some stuff to take on the way back,
intended to clear his brain and calm him generally. Did he seem to you
quite normal?"
Then Helen rose and stood before him with clasped hands.
Pages:
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113