below.

Simpson received him at the hall door; and he just stopped himself in
time, as he was about to ask for Miss Champion. This perilous approach
to a slip reminded him how carefully he must guard words and actions in
this house, where Jane had successfully steered her intricate course.
He would never forgive himself if he gave her away.

"Mr. Dalmain is in the library, Sir Deryck," said Simpson; and it was a
very alert, clear-headed doctor who followed the man across the hall.

Garth rose from his chair and walked forward to meet him, his right
hand outstretched, a smile of welcome on his face, and so direct and
unhesitating a course that the doctor had to glance at the sightless
face to make sure that this lithe, graceful, easy-moving figure was
indeed the blind man he had come to see. Then he noticed a length of
brown silk cord stretched from an arm of the chair Garth had quitted to
the door. Garth's left hand had slipped lightly along it as he walked.

The doctor put his hand into the one outstretched, and gripped it
warmly.

"My dear fellow! What a change!"

"Isn't it?" said Garth delightedly. "And it is entirely she who has
worked it,--the capital little woman you sent up to me. I want to tell
you how first-rate she is." He had reached his chair again, and found
and drew forward for the doctor the one in which Jane usually sat,
"this is her own idea." He unhitched the cord, and let it fall to the
floor, a fine string remaining attached to it and to the chair, by
which he could draw it up again at will. "There is one on this side
leading to the piano, and one here to the window. Now how should you
know them apart?"

"They are brown, purple, and orange," replied the doctor.

"Yes," said Garth. "You know them by the colours, but I distinguish
them by a slight difference in the thickness and in the texture, which
you could not see, but which I can feel. And I enjoy thinking of the
colours, too. And sometimes I wear ties and things to match them. You
see, I know exactly how they look; and it was so like her to remember
that. An ordinary nurse would have put red, green, and blue, and I
should have sat and hated the thought of them knowing how vilely they
must be clashing with my Persian carpet. But she understands how much
colours mean to me, even though I cannot see them."

"I conclude that by 'she' you mean Nurse Rosemary," said the doctor. "I
am glad she is a success."

"A success!" exclaimed Garth. "W