that she should go to her own room and take one good night's rest, leaving him to the care of the nurse; but he was met by an equally peremptory refusal, and an assertion that a mattress on the floor was the most comfortable bed possible; and he was also told that he was on no account to interfere with the arrangements of the sick-room, but to do what he was told, and get well as fast as he could. He only smiled, as he saw that all fear of him had passed away, and in the perfect ease of Helen's manner, amounting to playfulness, when he was well enough to be amused, he felt that the love which he had once doubted, and almost driven away, was again his own; and a quiet rest came over the weary heart which had loved with all the irritation of believing it met with no return.
She told him of her hurried journey, of her troubles at the hotel, and insisted on his thinking Laurel Cottage—which could hold only themselves and four servants—the most charming residence in the world.
"My poor Helen, what a quantity of trouble I have given you! but surely you ought not to have been alone at that horrible hotel."
"I was not," she said, quite frankly, for she felt that the days of jealousy were over. "Mary Forrester lives in this neighbourhood, and she came with me; and Beaufort joined us, and was so useful during that first dreadful week—sitting up half the night, and writing accounts of you half the day, and making love to Mary at all odd moments; and those two people who had hated each other fell in love on the strength of their mutual interest in your illness. You have made that marriage, dearest, simply by the fright you gave us."
"Dear old Beaufort!" said Lord Teviot; "he is a thorough good fellow. I fancied I had a vision of him one night by my bedside. Helen, I should so like to see him. Am not I well enough?"
