ent a
little more of the restfulness and comfort of a sick room. "I must
get in a night nurse at once," he said. "We must find a small table
somewhere to put near the bed.

"I am afraid you are very ill," he said, returning to the bedside. "This
is not, as you say, my sort of work. Will you let me call in another
man, a man we can trust thoroughly, to consult?"

"I'm in your hands, said Sir Richmond. I want to pull through."

"He will know better where to get the right sort of nurse for the
case--and everything."

The second doctor presently came, with the right sort of nurse hard on
his heels. Sir Richmond submitted almost silently to his expert handling
and was sounded and looked to and listened at.

"H'm," said the second doctor, and then encouragingly to Sir Richmond:
"We've got to take care of you.

"There's a lot about this I don't like," said the second doctor and
drew Dr. Martineau by the arm towards the study. For a moment or so Sir
Richmond listened to the low murmur of their voices, but he did not feel
very deeply interested in what they were saying. He began to think what
a decent chap Dr. Martineau was, how helpful and fine and forgiving his
professional training had made him, how completely he had ignored the
smothered incivilities of their parting at Salisbury. All men ought
to have some such training, Not a bad idea to put every boy and girl
through a year or so of hospital service.... Sir Richmond must have
dozed, for his next perception was of Dr. Martineau standing over him
and saying "I am afraid, my dear Hardy, that you are very ill indeed.
Much more so than I thought you were at first."

Sir Richmond's raised eyebrows conveyed that he accepted this fact.

"I think Lady Hardy ought to be sent for."

Sir Richmond shook his head with unexpected vigour.

"Don't want her about," he said, and after a pause, "Don't want anybody
about."

"But if anything happens-?"

"Send then."

An expression of obstinate calm overspread Sir Richmond's face. He
seemed to regard the matter as settled. He closed his eyes.

For a time Dr. Martineau desisted. He went to the window and turned to
look again at the impassive figure on the bed. Did Sir Richmond fully
understand? He made a step towards his patient and hesitated. Then he
brought a chair and sat down at the bedside.

Sir Richmond opened his eyes and regarded him with a slight frown.

"A case of pneumonia," said the doctor, "after great exertion a