"Basil!" she murmured. "It can't be you! And yet--Basil!"
He laughed, a little bitterly. "They have let me out to die," he answered. "The doctor to-day signed a certificate that I have no reasonable chance of living longer than another month, so here I am, free, Winifred, if you like to call it freedom."
She came and sat on the bench by his side. At that moment it was hard to say, from their appearance, which of the two seemed the nearer death.
"Half-an-hour ago," he answered. "I came straight here. I wondered whether you could get a month's vacation, and come with me somewhere south. We have enough money for a little time."
"If they will not let me go," she answered, "I will leave. That is simple enough. We have enough money, Basil. We will go this afternoon."
He shook his head. "First," he said, "I must see--I must see--"
"A friend," he answered, "someone who may be inclined to do something for me,--not for myself," he added hastily,--"that, of course, is ridiculous--but it is of you I am thinking, of you after I am gone."
"I shall be all right, Basil," she said. "We have several hundred pounds left, you know."
"It is not enough," he answered firmly. "Winifred, will you go on an errand for me?"
"Where to?" she asked, with a sudden sinking of her heart.
"To a man whose address I will give you,--a rich man, a great man. I think that he will be willing to do something for us. His name is Stirling Deane. I will write his address down for you."
"Mr. Deane!" she repeated. "I have been before to see him, Basil. I went before your reprieve came."
"Of course," he said. "I had forgotten. Well, I want you to go up to him now. I want to see him, but I do not want to go to his offices. Where do you live, Winifred?"
"It is an apartment house for women only," she answered. "I cannot take you there."
"Then we must go to a hotel," he said. "It seems a mockery to buy clothes, but there are one or two things I must have. To-morrow we will go somewhere south."
She glanced at the clock. "I will see whether I can get away now," she said.
She disappeared, and came out again in a few minutes with her hat on. "Come," she said.
He led her to the cab outside. "We will drive to a hotel," he said. "When we have taken some rooms, you shall go and see Mr. Deane. I think that he will come to me if you will tell him that I am free, that I have only three weeks to live, and that I should like to see him."