And the three men kept their vigil.

The broad-shouldered Wykehamist, utterly unnerved, sat by the bed trembling from head to foot.

Desmond kept watch over the tourniquet.
Falloden stood a little apart, in a dead silence, his eyes wandering occasionally from the figure on the bed to the open window, through which could be seen the summer sky, and a mounting sun, just touching the college roofs.

The college clock struck half past four.

Not two hours since Radowitz and Constance Bledlow had held the eyes of Oxford in the Magdalen ballroom..