who was paid? In her present state of feeling, Iris would, in all
probability, refuse to believe it.

Arriving at these conclusions, Hugh looked at the doctor snoring and
choking in an easy-chair. He had not wasted the time and patience
devoted to the stratagem which had now successfully reached its end.
After what he had just heard--thanks to the claret--he could not
hesitate to accomplish the speedy removal of Iris from Mr. Vimpany's
house; using her father's telegram as the only means of persuasion on
which it was possible to rely. Mountjoy left the inn without ceremony,
and hurried away to Iris in the hope of inducing her to return to
London with him that night.

CHAPTER VII

DOCTORING THE DOCTOR

ASKING for Miss Henley at the doctor's door, Hugh was informed that she
had gone out, with her invalid maid, for a walk. She had left word, if
Mr. Mountjoy called in her absence, to beg that he would kindly wait
for her return.

On his way up to the drawing-room, Mountjoy heard Mrs. Vimpany's
sonorous voice occupied, as he supposed, in reading aloud. The door
being opened for him, he surprised her, striding up and down the room
with a book in her hand; grandly declaiming without anybody to applaud
her. After what Hugh had already heard, he could only conclude that
reminiscences of her theatrical career had tempted the solitary actress
to make a private appearance, for her own pleasure, in one of those
tragic characters to which her husband had alluded. She recovered her