He rose to his feet at once, courteously offering me a chair, which
I declined, and drew his cigar from his mouth.

"I have two patients on board,"--he answered, smiling--"Which one?"

"The one who is your patient from choice, not necessity,"--I
replied, coolly.

"My dear lady!" His eyes blinked at me with a furtive astonishment--
"If you were not so charming I should say you were--well!--SHALL I
say it?--a trifle opinionated!"

I laughed.

"Granted!" I said--"If it is opinionated to be honest I plead
guilty! Miss Harland is as well as you or I,--she's only morbid."

"True!--but morbidness is a form of illness,--a malady of the
nerves--"

I laughed again, much to his visible annoyance.

"Curable by outward applications of electricity?" I queried--"When
the mischief is in the mind? But there!--I mustn't interfere, I
suppose! Nevertheless you keep Miss Harland ill when she might be
quite well."

A disagreeable line furrowed the corners of his mouth.