He had not time to speak, however, before a new sensation arrested his attention,--a faint odour which filled the place.
"The house smells like a hospital," he exclaimed, in great annoyance.
"What does it mean ?" The man he addressed did not answer.

He turned a perturbed awkward face to his superior in rank, an older man, who was house steward.
In the house of mortal pain or death there is but one thing more full of suggestion than the faint smell of antiseptics,--the gruesome, cleanly, unpleasant odour,--that is, the unnatural sound of the whispering of hushed voices.

Lord Walderhurst turned cold, and felt it necessary to stiffen his spine when he heard his servant's answer and the tone in which it was made.
"Her ladyship, my lord--her ladyship is very low.

The doctors do not leave her." "Her ladyship ?" The man stepped back deferentially.

The door of the morning-room had been opened, and old Lady Maria Bayne stood on the threshold.