And so it was almost inevitable that she should give him his opportunity at last.

Late one evening she entered his consulting-room where he was busy writing.

“I want to talk to you,” she said.  “Is it very inconvenient?”

The doctor leaned back in his chair.  “Sit down there,” he said, pointing to one immediately facing him.

She laughed and obeyed, faintly blushing.  “I’m not a patient, you know.”

He drew his black brows together.  “It’s very late.  Why don’t you go to bed?”

“Because I want to talk to you.”

“You can do that to-morrow,” bluntly rejoined Dr. Jim.  “You can’t afford to sacrifice your sleep to chatter.”

“I am not sacrificing any sleep,” Muriel told him rather wearily.  “I never sleep before morning.”

He laid down his pen and gave her one of his hard looks.  “Then you are a very silly girl,” he said curtly at length.

“It isn’t my fault,” she protested.

He shrugged his shoulders.  “You all say that.  It’s the most ordinary lie I know.”

Muriel smiled.  “I know you are longing to give me something nasty.  You may if you like.  I’ll take it, whatever it is.”

Dr. Jim was silent for a space.  He continued to regard her steadily, with a scrutiny that spared her nothing.  She sat quite still under it.  He had never disconcerted her yet.  But when he leaned suddenly forward and took her wrist between his fingers, she made a slight, instinctive effort to frustrate him.

“Be still,” he ordered.  “What makes you so absurdly nervous?  Want of sleep, eh?”

Her lips trembled a little.  “Don’t probe too deep, doctor,” she pleaded.  “I am not very happy just now.”

“Why don’t you tell me what is the matter?” he asked gruffly.

She did not answer, and he continued frowning over her pulse.

“What do you want to talk to me about?” he asked at last.

She looked up with an effort.  “Oh, nothing much.  Only a letter from a Mrs. Langdale who lives in town.  She is going to India in November, and says she will take charge of me if I care to go with her.  She has invited me to go and stay with her beforehand.”

“Well?” said Jim, as she paused.

“I don’t want to go,” she said.  “Do you think I ought?  She is Lady Bassett’s sister.”

“I think it would probably do you good, if that’s what you mean,” he returned.  “But I don’t suppose that consideration has much weight with you.  Why don’t you want to go?”

“I don’t like strangers, and I hate Lady Bassett,” Muriel answered, with absolute simplicity.  “Then there is Daisy.  I don’t know what her plans are.  I always thought we should go East together.”

“There’s no sense in waiting for Daisy’s plans to develop,” declared Jim.  “She is as changeable as the wind.  Possibly Nick will be able to make up her mind for her.  I fancy he means to try.”