er."

"But ... but the way you hold it," cried the other; "the grip ... the
grip it has of you. That's the point. D'you mean to tell me--"

"I mean that I don't care for anything else in the whole world," said
Frank, stung with sudden enthusiasm.

"But ... but you're not mad! You're a very sensible, fellow. You don't
mean to tell me you really believe all that--all that about pain and so
on? We doctors know perfectly what all that is. It's a reaction of
Nature ... a warning to look out ... it's often simply the effects of
building up; and we're beginning to think--ah! that won't interest you!
Listen to me! I'm what they call a specialist--an investigator. I can
tell you, without conceit, that I probably know all that is to be known
on a certain subject. Well, I can tell you as an authority--"

Frank lifted his head a little. He was keenly interested by the fire
with which this other enthusiast spoke.

"I daresay you can," said Frank. "And I daresay it's all perfectly true;
but what in the world has all that got to do with it--with the use made
of it--the meaning of it? Now I--"

"Hush! hush!" said the doctor. "We mustn't get excited. That's no good."

He stopped and stared mournfully out again.

"I wish you could really tell me," he said more slowly. "But that's just
what you can't. I know that. It's a personal thing."

"But my dear doctor--" said Frank.

"That's enough," said the other. "I was an old fool to think it
possible--"

Frank interrupted again in his turn. (He was conscious of that
extraordinary mental clearness that comes sometimes to convalescents,
and he suddenly perceived there was something behind all this which had
not yet made its appearance.)

"You've some reason for asking all this," he said. "I wish you'd tell me
exactly what's in your mind."

The old man turned and looked at him with a kind of doubtful fixedness.

"Why do you say that, my boy?"

"People like you," said Frank smiling, "don't get excited over people
like me, unless there's something.... I was at Cambridge, you know. I
know the dons there, and--"

"Well, I'll tell you," said the doctor, drawing a long breath. "I hadn't
meant to. I know it's mere nonsense; but--" He stopped an instant and
called aloud: "Thomas! Thomas!"

Thomas's lean head, like a bird's, popped out from a window in the
kitchen court behind.

"Come here a minute."

Thomas came and stood before them with a piece of wash-leather in one
hand and a