women myself, having always considered dogs and horses less ensnaring
and more companionable creatures. So I would not trust my own eyes, but
preferred to give you Sir Deryck's description. You will allow him to
be a fine judge of women. You have seen Lady Brand?"

"Seen her? Yes," said Garth eagerly, a slight flush tinting his thin
cheeks, "and more than that, I've painted her. Ah, such a
picture!--standing at a table, the sunlight in her hair, arranging
golden daffodils in an old Venetian vase. Did you see it, doctor, in
the New Gallery, two years ago?"

"No," said Dr. Rob. "I am not finding myself in galleries, new or old.
But"--he turned a swift look of inquiry on Jane, who nodded--"Nurse
Gray was telling me she had seen it."

"Really?" said Garth, interested. "Somehow one does not connect nurses
with picture galleries."

"I don't know why not," said Dr. Rob. "They must go somewhere for their
outings. They can't be everlastingly nosing shop windows in all
weathers; so why not go in and have a look at your pictures? Besides,
Miss Rosemary is a young lady of parts. Sir Deryck assures me she is a
gentlewoman by birth, well-read and intelligent.--Now, laddie, what is
it to be?"

Garth considered silently.

Jane turned away and gripped the mantelpiece. So much hung in the
balance during that quiet minute.

At length Garth spoke, slowly, hesitatingly. "If only I could quite
disassociate the voice from the--from that other personality. If I
could be quite sure that, though her voice is so extraordinarily like,
she herself is not--" he paused, and Jane's heart stood still. Was a
description of herself coming?--"is not at all like the face and figure
which stand clear in my remembrance as associated with that voice."

"Well," said Dr. Rob, "I'm thinking we can manage that for you. These
nurses know their patients must be humoured. We will call the young
lady back, and she shall kneel down beside your bed--Bless you! She
won't mind, with me to play old Gooseberry!--and you shall pass your
hands over her face and hair, and round her little waist, and assure
yourself, by touch, what an elegant, dainty little person it is, in a
blue frock and white apron."

Garth burst out laughing, and his voice had a tone it had not yet held.
"Of all the preposterous suggestions!" he said. "Good heavens! What an
ass I must have been making of myself! And I begin to think I have
exaggerated the resemblance. In a day or two, I shall