What could this mean?
Had reason fled?
But she struggled hard to preserve a calm exterior.
"Will Hartley be up to-day ?" Irene tried to say "No," but could not find utterance.
Mr.Delancy looked at her curiously, and now in a slightly troubled way.

Then he let his eyes fall, and sat holding his cup like one who was turning perplexed thoughts in his mind.
"You are not well this morning, father," said Irene, speaking only because silence was too oppressive for endurance.
"I don't know; perhaps I'm not very well;" and Mr.Delancy looked across the table at his daughter very earnestly.

"I had bad dreams all last night, and they seem to have got mixed up in my thoughts with real things.

How is it?
When did you come up from New York?
Don't smile at me.

But really I can't think." "I came yesterday," said Irene, as calmly as she could speak.
"Yesterday!" He looked at her with a quickly changing face.
"Yes, father, I came up yesterday." "And Rose was here ?" "Yes." Mr.Delancy's eyes fell again, and he sat very still.
"Hartley will not be here to-day ?" Mr.Delancy did not look up as he asked this question.
"No, father." "Nor to-morrow ?" "I think not." A sigh quivered on the old man's lips.
"Nor the day after that ?" "He did not say when he was coming," replied Irene, evasively.
"Did not say when?
Did not say when ?" Mr.Delancy repeated the sentence two or three times, evidently trying all the while to recall something which had faded from his memory.
"Don't worry yourself about Hartley," said Irene, forcing herself to pronounce a name that seemed like fire on her lips.