"Nigel knows me as the world does not," she continued, quietly. "And the
one who treats me wrongly, without the respect due to me as his wife
will find he has lost Nigel as a friend."

Isaacson felt like a man whose enemy has abruptly unmasked a battery,
and who faces the muzzles of formidable guns.

"You don't know Nigel."

She said it softly, almost reflectively, and with a little droop of the
head she emphasized it.

"You had better do what I ask you to do, Doctor Isaacson. If you wish to
do Nigel good, you had better not try to force yourself in against my
will in the dead of the night, when I'm tired out and have begged you to
go. You had better let me ask Doctor Hartley for a consultation
to-morrow, and tell Nigel, and call you in. That's the best plan--if you
want to be nice to Nigel."

She sat down again on the divan, at a short distance from him, and close
to the door by which Hamza had gone out.

"Nigel and I have talked this all over," she said, with a quiet
sweetness.

"Talked this over?" Isaacson said.

With his usual quickness of mind he had realized the exact strength of
the strategic position she had so suddenly and unexpectedly taken up.
For the moment he wished to gain time. His former complete decision as
to what he meant to do was slightly weakened by her presentation of
Nigel, the believer. From his knowledge of his friend, he appreciated
her judgment of Nigel at its full value. What she had just said was
true, and the truth bristled like a bayonet-point in the midst of the
lies by which it was surrounded.

"Talked this over? How can that be?"

"Very easily. When two people love each other there is nothing they do
not discuss--even their enemies."

"My dear Mrs. Armine, no melodrama, please!"

"Melodrama or not, Doctor Isaacson, I promise you it is a fact that my
friends are Nigel's friends, and that my enemies would, at a very few
words from me, find that in Nigel they had an enemy."

"If you are speaking of me, your husband would never be my enemy."

"Do you know why he never told you we were going to be married?"

"It was no business of mine."

"His instinct informed him that you mistrusted me. Since then a good
deal of time has passed. A man who loves his wife, and has proved her
devotion to him, does not care about those who mistrust and condemn her.
Their mistrust and condemnation reflect upon him, and not only on his
love, but on his pride. I advise you, when you come t