cson at once dropped his
hand, while he said:

"I don't think there is any reason to make a fuss. But, being so near, I
just rowed up to see how you were getting on after your sleep."

"I didn't sleep at night," Nigel said quickly. "What you gave me did me
no good at all."

"I'm sorry for that."

Nigel still sat up against the cushions, but his body now inclined
slightly to the left side, where Mrs. Armine was standing, looking down
on him with quiet solicitude.

"I had a very bad night--very bad."

"Then I'm afraid--"

"Doctor Hartley rowed down to fetch you here, I understood," Nigel
interrupted.

There was suspicion in his voice.

"Yes," said Hartley, speaking for the first time, nervously. "I--I
thought to myself, 'Two heads are better than one.'"

He forced a sort of laugh. Nigel twitched on the divan like a man
supremely irritated, then looked from one doctor to the other with eyes
that included them both in his irritation.

"Two heads--what for?" he said. "What d'you mean?"

He sighed heavily as he finished the question. Then, without waiting for
an answer, he said to his wife:

"If only I could have a little peace!"

There was a frightful weariness in his voice, a sound that made Isaacson
think of a cruelly treated child's voice. Mrs. Armine bent down and
touched his hand as it lay on the newspaper which was still across his
knees. She smiled at him.

"A little patience!" she murmured.

She raised her eyebrows.

"Yes, it's all very well, Ruby, but--" He looked again at Isaacson, with
a distinct though not forcible hostility. "I know you want to doctor me,
Isaacson," he said. "And she asked me to-night to see you. Last night it
was different, but to-night I don't want doctoring. Frankly"--he sighed
again heavily--"I only see any one to-night to please her. All I want is
quiet. We came here for quiet. But we don't seem to get it."

He turned again to his wife.

"Even you are getting worn out. I can see that," he said.

Mrs. Armine's forehead sharply contracted. "Oh, I'm all right, Nigel,"
she said, quickly. She laughed. "I'm not going to let them begin
doctoring me," she said.

"She's nursed me like a slave," Nigel continued, looking at the two men,
and speaking as if for a defence. "There has never been such devotion.
And I wish every one could know it." Tears suddenly started into his
eyes. "But the best things and the best people in the world are not
believed in, are never believed