But you are,' returned Pia, in the way that she insists when she is
very anxious about anything.

"I heard the man give a little laugh."

"'It is exceedingly good of you to trouble concerning me,' he said, 'and
I really don't know why you should.'

"'Oh,' said Pia quickly, 'you need not be afraid that I, personally, wish
to interfere with you again. You made it quite plain to me months ago
that you had no smallest wish for me to do so. But, speaking simply as
one human being to another, as complete and entire strangers, even, I do
ask you to see a doctor.'

"Then there was a moment's silence."

"'I think not,' I heard the man say presently. 'I am really not
sufficiently interested in myself. Though--' and then, Trix dear, he half
stopped, and his voice altered in the queerest way,--'the fact that you
have shown interest enough to ask me to do so, has, curiously enough,
made me feel quite a good deal more important in my own eyes.'

"'You refused my friendship,' I heard Pia say, and her voice shook a
little.

"'I did,' said the man in rather a stern voice.

"Again, Trix dear, there was a little silence. Then Pia said:

"'I don't intend again to offer a thing that has once been rejected. I
shall _never_ do that. But because we once were friends, or at all
events, fancied ourselves friends, I do ask you to see Doctor Hilary.
That is all.'

"She must have turned from him at once, because she came into the church,
and went up the aisle to her own chair. She knelt down, and put her hands
over her eyes; and, Trix dearest, she was crying. I am crying now when I
think about it, so forgive the blots on the paper. A minute later I heard
the door open and shut again, so I knew the man had gone. I got up as
softly as I could, and slipped out of the church. It would never have
done for Pia to see me, and I was so thankful to St. Peter for hiding
me.

"Well, my dear Trix, wasn't it amazing? And one of the most amazing
things was that the man's voice and way of speaking was quite educated,
not the least as one would suppose a gardener would speak.

"I went to the post-office and bought some stamps, though I really had
plenty at home, and loitered about for nearly a quarter of an hour. Then
I thought I had better go and find Pia. I met her coming out of the
church. She was very pale; but she smiled, and wanted to know where I'd
been, and I told her to the post-office. And then we drove home together.
Pia laughed and chatt