w your
wisdom in remaining quiet. Perhaps you would be quieter still with the
window shut--so--and fastened to prevent it rattling. I will open it when I
come up again. There shall not be a sound in the house to disturb you."

And he took to tiptoes there and then, gliding about with a smiling
stealth that set Pocket shivering on the bed; he shivered the more when an
admirable doctor's hand, cool and smooth as steel, was laid upon his
forehead.

"A little fever, I'm afraid! I should get right into bed, if I were you.
It's nothing to be alarmed about, much less astonished; you have been
through so much, my poor young fellow."

"I have indeed!" cried Pocket, with unguarded bitterness.

And Baumgartner paused between the foot of the bed and the door.

"But there's one consolation for you," he said at length, in a sibilant
whisper. "They've had that letter of yours at home quite a long time
now--ever since yesterday morning, haven't they?"

The bed shook under Pocket when the door was shut--he only hoped it was not
before. Up to the last minute, he felt quite sure that Dr. Baumgartner,
suspicious as he was, had suspected nothing of the discovery downstairs
behind his back. If he himself had betrayed anything it was in the last
few seconds, when it had been all that he could do to keep from screaming
out his knowledge of the other's trickery. To play such a trick upon a
broken-hearted boy! To have the heart to play it! No wonder he felt
feverish to that wicked hand; the wonder was that he had actually lain
there listening to the smooth impostor gratuitously revelling in his
imposition!

Rage and disappointment seized him by turns, and both together; at first
they bit deeper even than the fear of Baumgartner--a fear felt from the
beginning, and naturally redoubled now. Disappointment had the sharper
tooth: his letter had ever gone, not one of his people knew a thing about
him yet, his tears had not drawn theirs, they had not hung in anxious
conclave on his words! Not that he had recognised any such subtle
consolations as factors in his temporary and comparative peace of mind;
now that they were gone, he could not have said what it was he missed; he
only knew that he could least forgive Baumgartner for this sudden sense of
cruel and crushing disappointment.

The phase passed, for the boy had the temperament that sees the other side
eventually, and of course there was something to be said for the doctor's
s