"Martha told me you had a headache--I hope it is not serious." "Oh no--not serious.

Only a headache," she said with a smile so unlike her own that Mr.Juxon began to feel nervous.

His resolution to tell her his errand began to waver; it seemed cruel, he thought, to disturb a person who was evidently so ill with a matter so serious.

He remembered that she had almost fainted on a previous occasion when she had spoken to him of her husband.

She had not been ill then; there was no knowing what the effect of a shock to her nerves might be at present.