d.

"How can you say that? It's not true."

"It is true. Isn't it, Doctor Hartley? Didn't my husband--"

She yawned again, and put down her hand on the back of a chair to which
she held tightly. "Didn't he ask you to remain on board and look after
the case?"

"Certainly!" cried the young man, eagerly drinking in her returning
favour. "Certainly!"

"Didn't he ask you to 'save him,' as he called it, poor, dear fellow?"

"That was the very word!"

"And last night?" said Isaacson, fixing his eyes upon her.

"Last night you startled him to death, rushing in upon him without
warning or preparation. Wasn't it a cruel, dangerous thing to do in his
condition, Doctor Hartley?"

"Most cruel! Unpardonably so! If anything had occurred you ought to have
been held responsible, Doctor Isaacson."

"And then whatever it was you gave him, you forced it on him. And he had
a perfectly terrible night in consequence."

"Not in consequence of what I gave him!" Isaacson said.

"It must have been."

"It was certainly not."

"He never had such a night before--never, till you interfered with him,
and interrupted Doctor Hartley's treatment."

"Disgraceful!" exclaimed the young doctor. "I never have heard of such
conduct. If it were ever to be made public, your medical reputation
would be ruined."

"And I shouldn't mind if it was, over that!" said Isaacson.

His fingers no longer crushed the brim of his hat, but held it gently.

"I shouldn't mind if it was. But I think if very great care is not taken
with this case, it will not be my medical reputation that will be ruined
over it."

As if mechanically Mrs. Armine pulled at the chair which she was
holding. She drew it nearer her, and twisted it a little round.

"What do you mean?" said Doctor Hartley.

"Mr. Armine is a well-known man. Almost all the English travellers on
the Nile, and most people of any importance in Cairo, know of his
illness--have heard about his supposed sunstroke."

"Supposed!" interrupted the young doctor, indignantly. "Supposed!"

"All these people will know the name of the medical man in charge of the
case--the medical man who declined a consultation."

"Will know?" said Hartley.

Under the attack of Isaacson's new manner his self-possession seemed
slightly less assured.

"I shall be in Assouan and Cairo presently," said Isaacson.

Mrs. Armine yawned and pulled at the chair. Her face twitched under her
veil. She looked almost terribly alive,