THE CONSULTATION The doctor's room was very quiet.

Jane leaned back in his dark green leather arm-chair, her feet on a footstool, her hands gripping the arms on either side.
The doctor sat at his table, in the round pivot-chair he always used,--a chair which enabled him to swing round suddenly and face a patient, or to turn away very quietly and bend over his table.
Just now he was not looking at Jane.

He had been giving her a detailed account of his visit to Castle Gleneesh, which he had left only on the previous evening.

He had spent five hours with Garth.

It seemed kindest to tell her all; but he was looking straight before him as he talked, because he knew that at last the tears were running unchecked down Jane's cheeks, and he wished her to think he did not notice them.
"You understand, dear," he was saying, "the actual wounds are going on well.