chance. Now, to cap the climax, I
have nothing but milk. I don't know why I should be so punished."

She laughed gaily and with a deft hand put the covers right for him.

"Never mind, I'll fix it for you so you'll find it quite different.
You'll see, it won't be bad."

Her words and the laugh were alike purely mechanical. Inside her brain
she was listening to other words in the doctor's hall, ten days ago:
"_I suppose he's had his milk regularly, a pint and a half a day?..._"

She had assumed that Sartorius had meant that the old man was fortified
by the extra nourishment, but the conclusion she had come to in regard
to Lady Clifford upset her former ideas. She heartily wished she had
not thought of it, that she had never overheard the conversation
between Lady Clifford and Holliday....

"I'd far better attend to my own affairs," she told herself decidedly.
"If I don't, I shall be in imminent danger of becoming known as Esther
the Eavesdropper."

At this thought she laughed again, spontaneously, then was disconcerted
to find a pair of sunken old eyes regarding her keenly.

"What's amusing you?" demanded her patient.

"This time I'm afraid I can't tell you," she confessed in confusion,
annoyed to feel a tide of red sweep over her face.

"Well, you might think of it again when you want a little extra
colour," commented the old man dryly, but with an approving glance.

As her eyes met his shyly, noting how the quizzical smile softened his
rather grim features, she realised his resemblance to his son.
Simultaneously Sir Charles became for her a human being. Up till now
he had been merely a "case." Something about him roused her sympathy,
a wave of pity swept over her, she felt that she would put her whole
heart into the task of taking care of him and making him well. Odd!
Was this the result of flattered vanity? Or was it because the old man
happened to resemble a certain young one? There was no denying that
the pleasant glow had persisted ever since that trivial conversation in
the hall.

She was late for _dejeuner_, and on entering the dining-room found Lady
Clifford just leaving, and Miss Clifford and her nephew lingering over
their coffee.

"You've had a lot to do, haven't you, Miss Rowe?" Miss Clifford greeted
her kindly. "It doesn't matter, everything has been kept hot."

As Esther sat down the old lady continued what she was saying to the
young man:

"Yes, it is very nice of Therese," she