.

THE END OF LORD OSTERMORE.
In the ante-room communicating with Lord Ostermore's bedroom the countess was in consultation with Rotherby, who had been summoned by his mother when my lord was stricken.
Her ladyship occupied the window-seat; Rotherby stood beside her, leaning slightly against the frame of the open window.

Their conversation was earnest and conducted in a low key, and one would naturally have conjectured that it had for subject the dangerous condition of the earl.

And so it had--the dangerous condition of the earl's political, if not physical, affairs.

To her ladyship and her son, the matter of their own future was of greater gravity than the matter of whether his lordship lived or died--which, whatever it may be, is not unreasonable.