Part 28 (1/2)

”Oh, I may as well. It will only be the third time I've had to own up.”

And she proceeded with a careful recapitulation of the events of the afternoon.

”You must have been very frightened,” said he as she ended.

”I was,” owned Trix.

”Ah, well; it's all over now,” he comforted her.

”Y-yes,” said Trix doubtfully.

”What's troubling you?” he demanded.

”The sneeze,” confessed Trix in a very small voice.

Doctor Hilary stifled a sudden spasm of laughter. She was so utterly and entirely in earnest.

”I wouldn't worry over a little thing like that, if I were you,” said he consolingly.

Once more Trix sighed.

”Of course it's absurd,” she said. ”I know it's absurd. But, somehow, little things do worry me, even when I know they're silly. And there's just enough that's not silliness in this to let it be a real worry.”

”A genuine midge bite,” he suggested. ”But, you know, rubbing it only makes it worse.”

She laughed a trifle shakily.

”And honestly,” he pursued, ”though I do understand your--your conscience in the matter, I'm really very glad you've seen Mr. Danver.”

”Well, so was I,” owned Trix.

Again there was a silence. They were walking down a narrow lane bordered on either side with high banks and hedges. The dust lay rather thick on the gra.s.s and leaves. It had already covered their shoes with its grey powder. Doctor Hilary was turning certain matters in his mind. Presently he gave voice to them.

”It is exceedingly good for him that someone besides myself and the butler and his wife should know that he is alive, and that he should know they do know it. I agreed to this mad business because I believed it would give him an interest in living, eccentric though the interest might be.”

Trix gurgled.

”It sounds so odd,” she explained, ”to hear you say that pretending to be dead could give any one an interest in life.” And she gurgled again.

Trix's gurgling was peculiarly infectious.

”Odd!” laughed Doctor Hilary. ”It's the oddest thing imaginable. No one but Nick could have conceived the whole business, or found the smallest interest in it. But he did find an interest, and that was enough for me.

He is lonely now, I grant. But before this--this invention, he was stagnant as well as lonely. His mind, and seemingly his soul with it, had become practically atrophied. His mind has now been roused to interest, though the most extraordinarily eccentric interest.”

”And his soul?” queried Trix simply.

Doctor Hilary shook his head.