Her expression became a little graver.

"As a matter of fact," she sighed, "my patient is very ill indeed, I
am afraid. However, the doctor shares the responsibility with me, and
he is staying with him now for half an hour."

"May I, in that case," he begged, "share your promenade?"

"With pleasure," she acquiesced, without enthusiasm. "You will have to
take off some of your coats, though."

"I am suffering from chill," he explained. "I sometimes think that I
shall never be warm again, after my experience of yesterday."

He divested himself, however, of his outside coat, arranged his
muffler carefully, thrust his hands into his pockets, and fell into
step by her side. "I am interested," he observed, "in illness. What
exactly is the matter with your charge?"

"He has had a bad operation," she replied, "and there are
complications."

"Dear me! Dear me!" Crawshay exclaimed, in a shocked tone. "And in
such a state he chooses to make a perilous voyage like this?"

"That is rather his affair, is it not?" she said drily.

"Precisely," her companion agreed. "Precisely! I should not, perhaps,
have made the remark. Sickness, however, interests me very much. I
have the misfortune not to be strong myself, and my own ailments