Oh! how
cruel, how cruel was fate!
Then he asked: "Mother, does it take women a long time to get well when
they have children? Ladies, I mean, who are finely nurtured? They
generally get well, though, don't they--and it is quite simple--"
And the Lady Henrietta blushed as she answered:
"Oh! yes, quite simple--unless some complications occur. Of course there is
always a faint danger, but then it is so well worth it. What a strange
thing to ask, though, dear boy! Were you thinking of Cousin Agatha?"
"Cousin Agatha!" said Paul vaguely, and then recollected himself. "Oh, yes,
of course--how is she?"
But when he went off to his room to change, his mother's words stayed with
him--"unless some complications occur"--and the thought opened a fresh
field of anxious wonderment.
At last it all seemed unbearable. A wild idea of rushing off to Vienna came
to him--to rush there on the clue of a postmark--but common sense put this
aside. It might be the means of just missing some message. No, he must bear
things and wait. This silence, perhaps, meant good news--and if by the end
of April nothing came, then he should have to break his promise and
investigate.
About this time Captain Grigsby again came to stay with them. And the next
day, as he and his host smoked their pipes while they walked up and down
the sunny terrace, he took occasion to give forth this information:
"I say, Charles--I have located her--have you?"
"No! By Jove!" said Paul's father.
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