ly Doctor South
shot a question at him.

"Why did you look at the sunset?"

Philip answered with his mouth full.

"Because I was happy."

Doctor South gave him an odd look, and the shadow of a smile flickered
across his old, tired face. They ate the rest of the dinner in silence;
but when the maid had given them the port and left the room, the old man
leaned back and fixed his sharp eyes on Philip.

"It stung you up a bit when I spoke of your game leg, young fellow?" he
said.

"People always do, directly or indirectly, when they get angry with me."

"I suppose they know it's your weak point."

Philip faced him and looked at him steadily.

"Are you very glad to have discovered it?"

The doctor did not answer, but he gave a chuckle of bitter mirth. They sat
for a while staring at one another. Then Doctor South surprised Philip
extremely.

"Why don't you stay here and I'll get rid of that damned fool with his
mumps?"

"It's very kind of you, but I hope to get an appointment at the hospital
in the autumn. It'll help me so much in getting other work later."

"I'm offering you a partnership," said Doctor South grumpily.

"Why?" asked Philip, with surprise.

"They seem to like you down here."

"I didn't think that was a fact which altogether met with your approval,"
Philip said drily.

"D'you suppose that after forty years' practice I care a twopenny damn
whether people prefer my assistant to me? No, my friend. There's no
sentiment between my patients and me. I don't expect gratitude from them,
I expect them to pay my fees. Well, what d'you say to it?"

Philip made no reply, not because he was thinking over the proposal, but
because he was astonished. It was evidently very unusual for someone to
offer a partnership to a newly qualified man; and he realised with wonder
that, although nothing would induce him to say so, Doctor South had taken
a fancy to him. He thought how amused the secretary at St. Luke's would be
when he told him.

"The practice brings in about seven hundred a year. We can reckon out how
much your share would be worth, and you can pay me off by degrees. And
when I die you can succeed me. I think that's better than knocking about
hospitals for two or three years, and then taking assistantships until you
can afford to set up for yourself."

Philip knew it was a chance that most people in his profession would jump
at; the profession was over-crowded, and half the men he knew would be
t