With an exclamation of alarm, he raised her from the floor and bore her
upstairs to the bed on which Lady Merivale had lain such a short time
ago. He was greatly puzzled by the disordered appearance of the room,
and his first thought was of burglars. He gave no time to this, however,
but hastened to get his wife into bed, then rushed out for a doctor.
When he returned with him it was found that Lucy had relapsed into a
state of fever, and was talking deliriously, of an inn at Canterbury, an
individual of the name of Johann Wilfer, and most of all, making
plaintive appeals to Jasper Vermont not to betray her.

As the next day Jessica had not returned, Ashford found all his work cut
out for him, to see after the shop and the children, as well as his
wife. A kindly neighbour came to his rescue; but John insisted on
nursing Lucy himself, while the woman remained downstairs.

At first, the husband paid little attention to the wandering, incoherent
sentences of his wife; but as the first excitement died down, and they
began to take distinct form, he bent over her, and learned the one error
of her life. Naturally, poor John recoiled in horror; the whole thing
seemed so incredible, so impossible to believe. Yet, when he had had
time to reflect, he saw that this explained all the little strangenesses
in his wife's conduct and manner; her intense nervousness at the sight
of any stranger; her reticence as to her youthful days; all this was
borne in on his mind, and he realised that he had been deceived. His
wife, in whom he had so trusted, had loved another before him; and at
the bitter truth, John Ashford utterly broke down, and, hiding his face
in the counterpane, sobbed like a child. Tears sometimes are Nature's
own medicine, and do more to soften the heart than any words. After the
first shock had worn away, Ashford commenced to look back on the happy
days he had spent with Lucy; the way she had worked with him, and for
him. These thoughts did their healing work, and accordingly, a few days
later, when Lucy Ashford returned to consciousness, she found her
husband's eyes gazing into hers with only pitying tenderness in their
depths.