"Where do you live?"

"Ah, rubber!" disgustedly remarked Swot. "Say, dis oin't no police court,
see?"

During all these questions, and to a certain extent their cause, Constance
had been quite conscious that the doctor was still watching her, and now
she once more turned to him, to say, with an inflection of disapproval,--

"When I spoke to you just now, Dr. Armstrong, I did not mean to interrupt
you in your duties, and you must not let me detain you from them."

"I had made my morning rounds long before you came, Miss Durant," equably
answered the doctor, "and had merely come back for a moment to take a look
at one of the patients."

"I feared you were neglecting--were allowing my arrival to interfere with
more important matters," replied Miss Durant, frigidly. "I never knew a
denser man," she added to herself, again seeking to ignore his presence by
giving her attention to Swot. "I should have brought a book with me
to-day, to read aloud to you, but I had no idea what kind of a story would
interest you. If you know of one, I'll get it and come to-morrow."

"Gee, Ise in it dis time wid bote feet, oin't Ise? Say, will youse git one
of de Old Sleuts? Deys de peachiest books dat wuz ever wroten."

"I will, if my bookshop has one, or can get it for me in time."

"There is little chance of your getting it there, Miss Durant," interposed
Dr. Armstrong; "but there is a place not far from here where stories of