u, when I heard it first I thought it was--it was she--the
other--come to me--here--and--" Garth's voice ceased suddenly.

"The pleasant lady?" suggested Dr. Rob. "I see. Well now, Mr. Dalmain,
Sir Deryck said the best thing that could happen would be if you came
to wish for visitors. It appears you have many friends ready and
anxious to come any distance in order to bring you help or cheer. Why
not let me send for this pleasant lady? I make no doubt she would come.
Then when she herself had sat beside you, and talked with you, the
nurse's voice would trouble you no longer."

Garth sat up again, his face wild with protest. Jane turned on the
hearth-rug, and stood watching it.

"No, doctor," he said. "Oh, my God, no! In the whole world, she is the
last person I would have enter this room!"

Dr. Mackenzie bent forward to examine minutely a microscopic darn in
the sheet. "And why?" he asked very low.

"Because," said Garth, "that pleasant lady, as you rightly call her,
has a noble, generous heart, and it might overflow with pity for my
blindness; and pity from her I could not accept. It would be the last
straw upon my heavy cross. I can bear the cross, doctor; I hope in time
to carry it manfully, until God bids me lay it down. But that last
straw--HER pity--would break me. I should fall in the dark, to rise no
more."

"I see," said Dr. Rob gently. "Poor laddie! The pleasant lady must not
come."

He waited silently a few minutes, then pushed back his chair and stood
up.

"Meanwhile," he said, "I must rely on you, Mr. Dalmain, to be agreeable
to Nurse Rosemary Gray, and not to make her task too difficult. I dare
not send her back. She is Dr. Brand's choice. Besides--think of the
cruel blow to her in her profession. Think of it, man!--sent off at a
moment's notice, after spending five minutes in her patient's room,
because, forsooth, her voice maddened him! Poor child! What a statement
to enter on her report! See her appear before the matron with it! Can't
you be generous and unselfish enough to face whatever trial there may
be for you in this bit of a coincidence?"

Garth hesitated. "Dr. Mackenzie," he said at last, "will you swear to
me that your description of this young lady was accurate in every
detail?"

"'Swear not at all,'" quoted Dr. Rob unctuously. "I had a pious mother,
laddie. Besides I can do better than that. I will let you into a
secret. I was reading from Sir Deryck's letter. I am no authority on