"And how must Charlotte--if anything happens--take him ?" The question held her a minute, and while she waited, with her eyes on him, she put out a grasping hand to his arm, in the flesh of which he felt her answer distinctly enough registered.

Thus she gave him, standing off a little, the firmest, longest, deepest injunction he had ever received from her.

"Nothing--in spite of everything--WILL happen.
Nothing HAS happened.

Nothing IS happening." He looked a trifle disappointed.

"I see.