Part 15 (1/2)

”Yes. I made a hollow square with the cribs and some chairs, and they were the lions, and I was the tamer. We played for an hour,--Mrs.

Binney was tired, and I made her go and lie down,--and then I sang them to sleep, dear little lambs, and came away and left them.”

”I see!” said Geoffrey. ”That is what made you so late. Do you think it's exactly professional to play menagerie for an hour and a half with your patients?”

Vesta laughed; the happy sound of her laughter fretted his nerves.

”I suppose that is the way you will practise, when you have taken your degree!” he said, disagreeably.

The girl flushed, and the happy light left her eyes. ”Don't talk of that!” she said. ”I told you I had given it up once and for all.”

”But you are well now; and--I am bound to say--you seem in many ways qualified for a physician. You might try again when you are entirely strong.”

”And break down again? thank you. No; I have proved to myself that I cannot do it, and there is an end.”

”Then--it's no business of mine, of course--what will you do?” asked Geoffrey. His ill-temper was dying out. The sound of her voice, so full, so even, so cordial, filled him like wine. He wanted her to go on talking; it did not matter much about what.

”What will you do?” he repeated, as the girl remained silent.

”Oh, I don't know! I suppose I shall just be a plain woman the rest of my life.”

”I don't think plain is exactly the word!” said Geoffrey.

”You didn't think 'pretty' was!” said Vesta; and, with a flash of laughter, she was gone.

Geoffrey had not wanted her to go. He had been alone all the afternoon.

(Ah, dear Miss Vesta! was it solitude, the patient hour you spent by his side, reading to him, chatting, trying your best to cheer the depression that you partly saw, partly divined? yes; for when an experiment in soul-chemistry is going on, it is one element, and one only, that can produce the needed result!) He had been alone, I say, all the afternoon, and his head ached, and there were shooting pains in his arm, and--he used to think it would be so interesting to break a bone, that one would learn so much better in that kind of way. Well, he was learning, learning no end; only you wanted some one to talk it over with. There was no fun in knowing things if there was no one to tell about them. And--anyhow, this bandage was getting quite dry, or it would be soon. There was the bowl of water on the stand beside him, but he could not change bandages with one hand. He heard Vesta stirring about in her room, the room next his. She was singing softly to herself; it didn't trouble her much that he was all alone, and suffering a good deal. She had a cold nature. Absurd for a person to be singing to chairs and tables, when other people--

He coughed; coughed again; sighed long and audibly. The soft singing stopped; was she--

No! it went on again. He knew the tune, but he could not hear the words. There was nothing so exasperating as not to be able to place a song.--

Cras.h.!.+ something s.h.i.+vered on the floor. Vesta came running, the song still on her lips. Her patient was flushed, and looked studiously out of the window.

”What is it? Oh, the bowl! I am so sorry! How did it happen?”

”It--fell down!” said Geoffrey.

Vesta was on her knees, picking up the pieces, sopping the spilt water with a towel. He regarded her with remorseful triumph.

”You were singing!” he said, at length.

”Was I? did I disturb you? I won't--”

”No! I don't mean that. I wanted to hear the words. I--I threw the bowl down on purpose.”

Vesta looked up in utter amazement; meeting the young doctor's eyes, something in them brought the lovely colour flooding over her face and neck.