Firstly, John Derringham had been disabled before the hour when he should have met his bride; and secondly, she was, when she wrote, unaware that he had had any accident at all.

She must thus be very unhappy and full of horrible anxiety--his dear little girl! But what courage and fortitude she showed, he mused on, not to give the situation away and lament even to him, her old friend.

She plainly intended to stand by the man she loved and never admit she had been going to marry him until he himself gave her leave.
"The one woman with a soul," Cheiron muttered, and rubbed the mist away which had gathered in his eyes.
He revolved the situation over and over.

Halcyone must be made aware of the accident, if she had not already read of it in the morning papers; but she must not be allowed to do anything rash--and as he got thus far in his meditations, a waiter knocked at the old-fashioned sitting-room door, and Halcyone herself brushed past him into the room.
She was deadly pale, and for a moment did not speak.
Mrs.Anderton, it appeared, thinking she would be tired from her unaccustomed journey, had suggested she should breakfast in bed, which Halcyone, thankful to be alone, had gratefully agreed to; and when on her breakfast tray which came up at eight o'clock she saw a daily paper, she had eagerly opened it, and after searching the unfamiliar sheets for the political news, her eye had caught the paragraph about John Derringham's accident.

In this particular journal the notice was merely the brief one of the evening before, but it was enough to wring Halcyone's heart.
She bounded from bed and got Priscilla to dress her in the shortest possible time, and the faithful nurse, seeing that her beloved lamb was in some deep distress, forbore to question her.
Nothing would have stopped Halcyone from going out, but she hoped to do so unperceived.
"Look if the way is clear to the door," she implored Priscilla, "while I put on my hat.