She had now but to await the
awakening.
CHAPTER XXII
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
When Norton stirred and would have opened his eyes but for the bandage
drawn over them, she was at his side. She had been kneeling there for
a long time, waiting. Her hand was on his where it had crept softly
from his wrist.
"You must lie very still," she commanded gently. "I am with you and
everything is all right. There was . . . an accident. No, don't try
to move the cloth; please, Roderick." She pushed his hand back down to
his side. "We are in the King's Palace, just you and I, and everything
is all right."
He was feverish, and she soothed him; sick, and she mothered him and
nursed him; troubled, uncertain, perplexed, and she comforted him. At
the first she went no further than saying that there had been an
accident; that already she had sent to San Juan for all that was needed
to make him comfortable; that Mr. Engle had been instructed to speed a
man to the railroad for further necessities; that now for his own sake,
for her sake, he must just lie very still . . . try not even to think.
He was listless, seeming without volition, quite willing to surrender
himself into her keeping. What dazed thoughts were his upon this first
awakening were lost, forgotten in the brief doze into which she
succeeded in luring him.
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