Old Virginie sprung up from her chair by the fire, alarmed.
"You excite madame!" Hugh turned to leave the room.
"We'll discuss this another time, Diane," he said.
Diane moved her head fretfully.
"No.

Now--now! Don't go! Hugh!" Her voice rose almost to a scream and simultaneously the nurse came hurrying in from the adjoining room.

She threw one glance at the patient, huddled flushed and excited against the pillows, then without more ado she marched up to Hugh and, taking him by the shoulders with her small, capable hands, she pushed him out of the room.
"Do you want to _kill_ your wife ?" she demanded in a low voice of concentrated anger.

"If so, you're going the right way about it." The next moment the door closed behind her, and Hugh found himself standing alone on the landing outside it.
Although the scene with her husband did not kill Diane, it went very near it.

For some time she was dangerously ill, but at last the combined efforts of doctor and nurse restored her once more to a frail hold upon life, and the resiliency of youth accomplished the rest.
Curiously enough, the remembrance of Hugh's brief visit to her bedside held for her no force of reality.