He was very ill indeed, and the doctors hardly thought he could live.
I was so sorry for him that I felt that if he died even the happiness of my meeting with my lover would be clouded over.

I longed for news of him, but it was not very easy to obtain it, since the infection kept every one away.
But one day I was walking when I met Lady Ardaragh driving in her little phaeton.

I had not seen her for some time and I was amazed at the change in her appearance.

She looked terribly ill.

All her butterfly prettiness was gone, and there was something to make the heart ache to see such evident suffering in one who had had the round softness of a child.
She pulled up her ponies as soon as she saw me.
"Bawn, Bawn," she said, "there is nothing but trouble in the world--at least in my world.