lit up with a sudden, grateful smile.

"You're right. I shouldn't cross bridges--and I mustn't let him see
I'm worried. Thank you, my dear!"

She took a step downward, then turned and smiled again at Esther with
friendly curiosity.

"What is your name," she asked, "and how do you come to be here?"

Esther told her.

"Well," remarked Miss Clifford, "you're a very different sort from the
young Frenchwoman the doctor had here before you came--all paint and
powder, busy making herself up whenever she thought you weren't
looking, always ready for a flirtation." She made a grimace. "Not
that she got very far with the doctor, I may tell you," she added, then
nodding good-bye, joined her brother in the car.

Esther went into the salon and straightened the disarranged pile of
magazines. Then going to the window she peered through the net curtain
at the two occupants of the Rolls Royce. The old man was leaning back
with his eyes shut and his haggard face sunken into lines of weariness;
his sister was adjusting the rug more comfortably about him, watching
him with troubled eyes. What a good sort she was! Esther liked her
downright honesty and warm-heartedness; she thought she had never met
anyone of that age so utterly guileless. How did she get on with her
temperamental sister-in-law? What did she think of her really?

She heard the door of the consulting-room open, the other one, leading
to the hall.

"You _think_--but are you _sure_?"

It was Lady Clifford who put this question in a voice which, though
low-pitched, had a note of sharp insistence.

"Sure! Can one be absolutely sure of anything?"

All the geniality was gone from the doctor's voice; he sounded cold, as
though wearied by a tiresome topic.

"Yes, but you know what my nerves are like! Can't you say something
more?"

A short silence. Then:

"You say he had his milk regularly--the pint and a half a day?"

"Yes, yes, of course--every day."

"Oh, then, I don't think I should worry."

The front door closed; a moment later the car drove away.

Puzzled and slightly curious, though not intensely so, Esther found
herself wondering what meaning there was in the doctor's last words.
Was the old man ill--or wasn't he?

As she continued putting the room to rights the doctor pushed open the
glass doors and stood regarding her undecidedly. There was no clue to
his thoughts, but then there seldom was.

"Fools, these people," he remarked at las