like an excited child.

"The poison--the poison!" she demanded.

He had to laugh.

"I forgot it," he said.

"_C'est dommage_. You 'ave not taken it yourself by any chance?"

"No--I wouldn't do that at any rate."

"_C'est vrai_. I ask--you 'ave an air _un peu souffrant_. Well, never
mind. It's droll though--I think about you just when you ring up--I
'ave a damn pain--not ze tummy-ache this time--and I say: '_Le pauvre
jeune homme_, 'ere is a chance for 'im to pay me out for kissing 'im
when 'e don't want to be kissed.' You remember--I say I send for you
one day. But ze old pain--it 'as gone now. You--'ow do you say?--you
conjure it away."

"Your pains don't interest me," he said. "For one thing I don't
believe you ever had any. I suppose you think a pain is the best
entertainment to offer a doctor. It's thoughtful of you, but I didn't
come here to be amused."

"Then I wonder what you want of me," she remarked. She went back to
her place on the fountain's edge, sitting amidst the flowers and
crushing them under her hands. The pose appealed to him as
expressively callous, and yet it was innocent too, the pose of a child
or an animal who destroys without knowledge or ill-will.

"Do people usually want things from you?" he asked.

"Always--all ze time."

"And you give so much."

She eyed him seriously.

"I give what I 'ave to give."

"And take what you can get."

"Like you, _Monsieur le docteur_."

The absoluteness of his hatred made it possible for him to laugh with
her.

"My fees are fairly reasonable at any rate. I've helped some people
for nothing."

"Because you love them?"

"No."

"_C'est dommage aussi_. You should love someone. It is much
'ealthier. I love everyone. Per'aps I love too much. I make
experiments. You make experiments--and sometimes leetle mistakes.
_Comme nous autres_. 'Ze operation was a _grand succes_--but ze
patient die.' I know. Some of mine die too."

"Prince Frederick, for instance?"

She lifted the long chain of pearls about her neck and considered them
dispassionately.

"That _canard_! You think 'e give me these? _Ce pauvre_ Fredi! 'E
couldn't 'ave given me a chain of pink coral. I could 'ave bought 'im
and 'is funny little kingdom with my dress-money. 'E shoot 'imself.
Well, that was 'is _affaire_. 'E 'ave no doubt explain 'imself to ze
_bon Dieu_, who is particulaire about that sort of thing. As to ze old
pearls--my agent 'e set th