rdon, mademoiselle!_"

A woman's voice in the doorway back of him made him start suddenly to
find Therese's maid, Aline, eyeing them with a slightly hostile
curiosity.

"_La porte de Madame est fermee a clef. Je demande pardon se je
derange Mademoiselle et Monsieur!_"

With a deprecatory manner that was irritatingly exaggerated she crossed
the room on tip-toe, bestowing a single searching glance on the sofa
and its occupant. Roger wondered how much she had heard in the
kitchen. He was sure Chalmers would give nothing important away to the
other servants.

"I wonder why Therese has locked her door?" Miss Clifford remarked
wonderingly when Aline had disappeared into her mistress's bedroom.
"She doesn't usually.... Listen, Roger, was that a car outside?"

Two minutes later Chalmers, with an air of relief, announced:

"Dr. Bousquet, sir."

CHAPTER XXXIV

"_Bonsoir, Madame! Bonsoir, Monsieur!_ I hope I have not kept you
long. I came as quickly as I could. This is the patient, I suppose?"

He spoke in excellent English, and had a brisk and businesslike air.
He was a small and dapper man with ginger hair cut _en brosse_, and
red-brown eyes behind thick glasses. Setting down his bag on a chair,
he cast a professional glance at the prostrate figure under the pink
quilt, then running his eyes over the room he discovered Dr. Sartorius.
At once a look of puzzled recognition, tinged with deference, came over
his sharp little face. He bowed stiffly.

"Ah, doctor, how do you do?" he greeted his colleague in a slightly
diffident tone. "Am I to understand that ... may I ask if I am
intruding, or..." and he broke off, obviously uncertain as to the
position of things.

Sartorius rose and stood stolidly beside his chair.

"Not at all, doctor," he replied coolly. "Mr. Clifford will no doubt
explain why you were sent for. There appears to be a good reason."

Expectantly the little man turned to Roger, who, seeing the necessity
of some explanation to satisfy him on a point of professional
etiquette, said quietly:

"This lady, doctor, is a nurse who has been employed in our family
until my father's death a few days ago. After the funeral she left the
house, then this evening she returned suddenly in a very strange and
excited state. A few minutes after she entered the room here she
became unconscious. The reason Dr. Sartorius does not attempt to do
anything for her is that when he did try she became much