I have no doubt your husband will be back again in a few weeks to fetch you, and we will have you quite well again by then." But Nan only shivered in response, as though she found this assurance the reverse of comforting.

The shock of the accident, succeeding the incessant strain of the past few weeks, had completely broken down her nerve, and no amount of reasoning could calm her.
When a message came from her husband an hour later, asking if she would see him, she answered in the affirmative, but the bare prospect of the interview threw her into a ferment of agitation.
She lay panting on her pillows like a frightened child when at length he entered.
He came in very softly, but every pulse in her body leapt at his approach.

She could not utter a word in greeting.
He stood a moment in silence, looking down at her, then, stooping, he took her free hand into his own.
"Are you better ?" he asked, his deep voice hushed as if he were in church.
She could not answer him for the fast beating of her heart.

He waited a little, then sat down by the bed, his great hand still holding her little trembling one in a steady grasp.
"The doctor tells me," he said, "that it would not be safe for you to travel at present, so I cannot of course, think of allowing you to do so." Nan's eyes opened very wide at this.

It was an entirely novel idea that this man should take upon himself to direct her movements.