Flitters, nose on paws, long ears sagging. He had forgotten
Flitters. Had Flitters forgotten him? Would he bark at the
strange, distasteful scent of a--Dr Ferguson? The coast was
clear, then. He turned even softlier yet, to confront, rapt,
still, and hovering betwixt astonishment and dread, the blue calm
eyes of his daughter, looking in at the door. It seemed to
Lawford as if they had both been suddenly swept by some unseen
power into a still, unearthly silence.

'We thought,' he began at last, 'we thought just to beckon Mrs
Lawford from the window. He--he is asleep.'

Alice nodded. Her whole face was in a moment flooded with red. It
ebbed and left her pale. 'I will go down and tell mother you want
to see her. It was very silly of me. I did not quite recognise at
first...I suppose, thinking of my father--' The words faltered,
and the eyes were lifted to his face again with a desolate,
incredulous appeal. Lawford turned away heartsick and trembling.

'Certainly, certainly, by no means,' he began, listening vaguely
to the glib patter that seemed to come from another mouth. 'Your
father, my dear young lady, I venture to think is now really on
the road to recovery. Dr Simon makes excellent progress. But, of
course--two heads, we know, are so much better than one when
there's the least--the least difficulty. The great thing is
quiet, rest, isolation, no possibility of a shock, else--' His
voice fell away, his eloquence failed.

For Alice stood gazing stirlessly on and on into this infinitely
strange, infinitely familiar shadowy, phantasmal face. 'Oh yes,'