Sebastian, it seemed, had given her leave out for the evening.

She was a supernumerary nurse, attached to his own observation-cots as special attendant for scientific purposes, and she could generally get an hour or so whenever she required it.
Mrs.Mallet had been in the breakfast-room with Hilda before I arrived; but as I reached the house she rushed upstairs to wash her red eyes and compose herself a little before the strain of meeting me; so I had the opportunity for a few words alone first with my prophetic companion.
"You said just now at Nathaniel's," I burst out, "that Le Geyt would not be hanged: he would commit suicide.

What did you mean by that?
What reason had you for thinking so ?" Hilda sank into a chair by the open window, pulled a flower abstractedly from the vase at her side, and began picking it to pieces, floret after floret, with twitching fingers.

She was deeply moved.

"Well, consider his family history," she burst out at last, looking up at me with her large brown eyes as she reached the last petal.