We're all waiting for Mr. Dawson to come round and tell us
what to do next," said Linda. "Where are you going, Doctor? Won't you
sit down and talk for a minute? Please have my camp stool."

"It's a big surprise to us," added Sylvia. "We didn't know you ever
came to Aberglyn."

"I find myself here to-day," said Dr. Severn. "Thank you, Linda, but
I'm afraid I should break down your little seat if I were to put my
weight on it. There's a convenient stump here which will do very well.
Now you can imagine I'm an art critic, and show me some of the
masterpieces. I see both your friends are painting, also," he
continued, smiling at Mercy and Marian. "Will they let me look at
their pictures too?"

Dr. Severn was always at his ease with young people; his pleasant blue
eyes and genial manner seemed to attract them at once; and he had soon
added Mercy and Marian to the list of his admirers.

"I used to do a little sketching myself once," he said when he had
duly inspected the four studies and sympathized with their owners'
difficulties, "so I know how much harder it is than it looks,
particularly when one's a beginner. I found many quaint corners to
paint when I was abroad, especially in China and Japan."

"China! Were you ever in China?" asked Mercy with some eagerness.

"I was stationed in Szu-chwan for more than twenty years," replied Dr.
Severn.

"Do you know the Ingledew Hospital at Tsien-Lou?"

"I have heard of it, but I've never been there. I was in a different
district, and the distances were great and travelling often
dangerous."

"I wish you'd seen it," said Mercy wistfully. "I lived there for six
years, and I still write to Dr. and Mrs. Harrison and to Sister
Grace."

"Their names are well known, though I have not had the good fortune
to meet them personally," answered Dr. Severn, gazing steadily at
Mercy with a strange look in his blue eyes. "Can you remember much of
your life in China?"

"Not a great deal. I was only seven when I left and there has been
nobody to talk to me about it and remind me. I haven't forgotten the
narrow streets and the crowds of people in strange dresses who used to
be walking about in them, nor our garden at the hospital with the
camellias, and the high wall round it. I remember the little mission
church, too, where we had service on Sundays. It was all in Chinese,
but I could speak it then quite easily. I couldn't understand a single
word now."

"Do you know Chinese, Doctor?