"What! you, Cumberledge ?" he murmured, measuring me with his eye; "and you, Nurse Wade?
Well, I thought you would manage it." There was a tone almost of amusement in his voice, a half-ironical tone which had been familiar to us in the old hospital days.

He raised himself on one arm and gazed at the water all round.

Then he was silent for some minutes.

At last he spoke again.

"Do you know what I ought to do if I were consistent ?" he asked, with a tinge of pathos in his words.