f this little scene, watched it throughout; at first
indifferent, a prey to his own worries, but soon in quickening interest,
shrewd enquiry and finally in dawning comprehension.

"Holy Mother of Mercy, so that's the lay of the land, is it?" and his
loose lips shaped themselves to a whistle, yet emitted no sound. To
obliterate all signs of which tendency to vulgar expression of
enlightenment he rubbed moustache, mouth and chin with his napkin,
studying Carteret closely meanwhile.

"In the pink of condition, by Gad--good for a liberal twenty years yet,
and more--bar accident. Indefinite postponement of the grand climacteric
in this case.--All the same a leetle, lee-tie bit dangerous, I'm
thinking, for both, if she tumbles to it."

Then aloud--"Has the poor darling girl grasped the meaning of her
father's illness do you make out, Colonel grasped the ugly
eventualities of it?"

Carteret slowly brought his glance to bear on the speaker.

"I believe so, though she has not actually told me as much," he
said--"And now about this question of a second opinion, McCabe?"

The easily huffed Irishman accepted the reproof in the best spirit
possible, as confirming his own perspicacity.

"Quite so. Flicked him neatly on the raw, and he winced. All the same
he's a white man, a real jewel of a fellow, worthy of good fortune if the
ball's thrown his way. I wonder how long, by-the-by, this handsome game's
been a-playing?"

With which, as requested, he returned to the rival claims of Harley
Street and Harchester in respect of a consulting physician.

Carteret proved a faithful prophet, for in truth there was nothing to
dread the beloved presence once entered, as Damaris thankfully
registered.

The sun by now topped the hollies and shone into the study, flinging a
bright slanting pathway across the dim crimson, scarlet and blue of the
Turkey carpet. Charles Verity stood, in an open bay of the great window,
looking out over the garden. Seen thus, in the still sunlight, the tall
grey-clad figure possessed all its accustomed, slightly arrogant repose.
Damaris thrilled with exalted hope. For the young are slow to admit even
the verdict of fact as final. His attitude was so natural, so unstrained
and unstudied, that the message of ghostly warning yesterday evening was
surely discounted; while the subsequent terror of the night, that hideous
battle with pain and suffocation, became to her incredible, an evil dream
from which, in grate