action, but trying to think
out something he wants to say to the Earl, and how to say it. It is not
so easy as light jesting.

The nurse telegraphs silently lipwise that the patient will doze now for
a quarter of an hour till breakfast; and the visitor, alive to the call
of discretion, has gone out gently before the patient knows he has left
the bedside.

Things that creak watch their opportunity whenever they hear silence. So
the Earl's gentle exit ends in a musical and penetrating _arpeggio_ of a
door-hinge, equal to the betrayal of Masonic secrecy if delivered at the
right moment. "Is Mrs. Bailey gone?" says the patient, ascribing the
wrong cause to it.

"His lordship has gone, Mr. Torrens. He thought you were dropping off."

"Stop him--stop him! Say I have something particular to say. Do stop
him!" It must be something very particular, Nurse thinks. But in any
case the patient's demand would have to be complied with. So the Earl is
recaptured and brought back.

"Is it anything I can do for you, Mr. Torrens? I am quite at your
service."

"Yes--something of importance to me. Is Mrs. Bailey there?"

"She is just going." She had not intended to do so. But this was a hint
clearly. It was accepted.

"All clear!" says the Earl. "And the door closed."

"My sister has promised to ask the Countess and your daughter--Lady
Gwen, is it not?"

"That is my daughter's name, Gwendolen. 'Has promised to ask them' ...
what?"

"To give me an opportunity before I go of thanking them both for all the
great kindness they have shown me, and of apologizing for my wish to
defer the interview."

"Yes--but why me?... I mean that that is all quite in order, but how do
I come in?" As the speaker's voice smiles as well as his face, his
hearer's blindness does not matter.

"Only this way. You know the doctors say my eyesight is not
incurable--probably will come all to rights of itself...."

"Yes--and then?"

"I want them--her ladyship and ..."

"My wife and daughter. I understand."

"... I want them to know as little about it as possible; to know
_nothing_ about it _if_ possible. You knew very little about it yourself
till just now."

"I was misled--kindly, I know--but misled for all that. And the
appearance is so extraordinary. Nobody could guess...."

"Exactly. Because the eyes are really unaffected and are sure to come
right. See now what I am asking you to do for me. Help me to deceive
them about it. They will not te