sudden pause; and as she looked into his vigilant face, in which she was
not sure there was not a hovering derision, she could not continue. She
felt that she ought to gather courage from the fact that he had not
started, or done anything positively disagreeable when she had asked for
a consultation; but she could not, and it did not avail her to reflect
that she was rendering herself liable to all conceivable misconstruction,
--that she was behaving childishly, with every appearance of behaving
guiltily.

He came to her aid again, in a blunt fashion, neither kind nor unkind,
but simply common sense. "What is the matter?"

"What is the matter?" she repeated.

"Yes. What are the symptoms? Where and how are, you sick?"

"I am not sick," she cried. They stared at each other in reciprocal
amazement and mystification.

"Then excuse me if I ask you what you wish me to do?"

"Oh!" said Grace, realizing his natural error, with a flush. "It is n't
in regard to myself that I wish to consult with you. It's another
person--a friend"--

"Well," said Dr. Mulbridge, laughing, with the impatience of a physician
used to making short cuts through the elaborate and reluctant statements
of ladies seeking advice, "what is the matter with your friend?"

"She has been an invalid for some time," replied Grace. The laugh, which