the landing, at the door of Miss Montmorency's best parlour--
a spick-and-span apartment containing a cottage piano, some gilded
furniture of the Second Empire fashion, a gaudy lithograph or two,
and a carpet that had to be seen to be believed.

"'I had better explain,' said I, 'that this is a professional visit.
I met Miss Montmorency just outside the town, and have her orders to
call. I am a medical man.'

"Still smiling pleasantly, he took my hand and shook it.

"'Miss Montmorency is so very thoughtful,' he said; then, touching
his chest lightly, 'It's true I have some trouble here--
constitutional, I'm afraid; but I have suffered from it, more or
less, ever since I was fourteen, and it doesn't frighten me.
There is really no call for your kind offices; nothing beyond a
general weakness, which has detained me here in Eucalyptus longer
than I intended. But Miss Montmorency, seeing my impatience, has
jumped to the belief that I am seriously ill.' Here he smiled again.
'She is the soul of kindness,' he added.

"I looked into his prominent and rather nervous eyes. They were as
innocent as a child's. Of course there was nothing unusual in his
hopefulness, which is common enough in cases of phthisis--
symptomatic, in fact; and, of course, I did not discourage him.

"'You have work waiting for you? Some definite post?' I asked.

"He answered with remarkable dignity; he looked a mere boy too.