the curtains and stared
out into the cloudy darkness.

"There's no use talking, Dido, I'm frightfully worried. I can't throw
this thing off at all. I've got a feeling there's something not quite
right, but I'm damned if I can put my finger on the trouble. If
someone could have lied to her, if she has some grudge against us for
any reason so that she doesn't want to see us again ... oh, God knows
what it is, but the whole atmosphere here has got on my nerves to such
an extent that I am anxious to get away. I feel I'll get better, too,
once I'm out of the house."

She nodded sympathetically, though with an eye on Therese's door.

"I should like to leave, too, my dear. Somehow I can't bear the house
since your father's death. I'd like to go back to England, though it's
a little early."

"I'll tell you. If there's no news of Esther in a couple of days, why
not pack up your things and we'll move along to some other
spot--Antibes, perhaps."

"But, Roger, you're not fit to travel at all. It would be madness! I
couldn't permit it."

"Oh, well, let's leave La Californie and go to an hotel in Cannes. If
you insisted, I'd send for a doctor--another one," he added, looking
rather shamefaced.

The old lady gazed at him in frank amazement.

"My dear, you couldn't do that! Why, it would offend poor Therese
terribly. I doubt if she'd ever get over it." She paused and lowered
her voice confidentially. "Perhaps you don't realise that she is
keeping Dr. Sartorius here entirely on your account."

Her nephew turned brusquely and stared at her, his brows knit with
annoyance.

"Are you sure of that?" he demanded.

"Why, of course! Why else should she go on having him here? It must
be a great expense. Besides, she told me so herself; she said your
father would have wished you to have the very best attention."

"Best fiddlesticks!" he retorted sharply. "Good Lord, why should I
have a private physician? I'm not the King. Thank heaven you told me
this. I shall let her know at once that I don't intend to make use of
him. She must let him go."

"My dear, do be careful!" his aunt implored him. "You know how
dreadfully sensitive she is; don't risk hurting her feelings! It would
be such a poor return for all her kindness."

"Leave it to me; I'll do it very tactfully. Really, it's too much! If
I'm going to be ill, I must be allowed to choose my own physician and
pay the bill myself. It's not that I haven't