by the
manly instinct of self-preservation, but by some imp of mockery lurking
in the depths that lured him.

He recovered his balance and took refuge in a tone of worldly ease. "I
saw a chap the other day who said he knew you when you were at Saint
Elizabeth's--wasn't that the name of your hospital?"

Justine assented. "One of the doctors, I suppose. Where did you meet
him?"

Ah, _now_ she should see! He summoned his utmost carelessness of tone.
"Down on Long Island last week--I was spending Sunday with the
Amhersts." He held up the glittering fact to her, and watched for the
least little blink of awe; but her lids never trembled. It was a
confession of social blindness which painfully negatived Mrs. Dressel's
hint that she knew the Amhersts; if she had even known _of_ them, she
could not so fatally have missed his point.

"Long Island?" She drew her brows together in puzzled retrospection. "I
wonder if it could have been Stephen Wyant? I heard he had taken over
his uncle's practice somewhere near New York."

"Wyant--that's the name. He's the doctor at Clifton, the nearest town to
the Amhersts' place. Little Cicely had a cold--Cicely Westmore, you
know--a small cousin of mine, by the way--" he switched a rose-branch
loftily out of her path, explaining, as she moved on, that Cicely was
the daughter of Mrs. Amherst's first marriage to Richard Westmore.
"That's the way I happened to see this Dr. Wyant. Bessy--Mrs.
Amherst--asked him to stop to luncheon, after he'd seen the kid. He
seems rather a discontented sort of a chap--grumbling at not having a
New York practice. I should have thought he had rather a snug berth,
down there at Lynbrook, with all those swells to dose."

Justine smiled. "Dr. Wyant is ambitious, and swells don't have as
interesting diseases as poor people. One gets tired of giving them bread
pills for imaginary ailments. But Dr. Wyant is not strong himself and I
fancy a country practice is better for him than hard work in town."

"You think him clever though, do you?" Westy enquired absently. He was
already bored with the subject of the Long Island doctor, and vexed at
the lack of perception that led his companion to show more concern in
the fortunes of a country practitioner than in the fact of his own visit
to the Amhersts; but the topic was a safe one, and it was agreeable to
see how her face kindled when she was interested.

Justine mused on his question. "I think he has very great promise-