Eden caught her hand and held it. He said, huskily: "I knew you'd come! You couldn't refuse me that—now. . . . Alayne, don't leave me. Stay with me—save me! You've no idea how I need you. I refused to have a nurse because I knew it was only you who could help me. It's your strength—your support. . . . I can't get well without it."
He broke into a passion of tears, and, with his eyes still wet, fell into a paroxysm of coughing.
She looked down on him, her face contorted like a child's, in the effort to keep from crying. She heard herself promise in a broken voice to accompany him back to Jalna.
