At last Adelaide sent the girl to bed.

Mathilde was aware of profound physical exhaustion, and yet underneath there was a high knowledge of something unbreakable within her.
Left alone, Adelaide turned instinctively toward her husband's door.
There were her strength and vision.

Then she remembered, and drew back; but presently, hearing a stir there, she knocked very softly.

A nurse appeared on the instant.
"Oh, _please_, Mrs.Farron! Mr.Farron has just got to sleep." Adelaide stood alone in the middle of the floor.

Once again, she thought, in a crisis of her life she had no one to depend on but herself.