"Starting at once," she wrote; and within half an hour her preparations were complete.
She knew Monck well enough to be certain that he would not have telegraphed that urgent message had not the need been great.

He had nursed Tommy once before, and she knew that in Tommy's estimation at least he had been the means of saving his life.

He was a man of steady nerve and level judgment.

He would not have sent for her if his faith in his own powers had not begun to weaken.

It meant that Tommy was very ill, that he might be dying.