Jennifer.  The animals in Sir Ralph’s house are like spoiled children.  When Mr. Walpole had to take a splinter out of the mastiff’s paw, I had to hold the poor dog myself; and Mr Walpole had to turn Sir Ralph out of the room.  And Mrs. Walpole has to tell the gardener not to kill wasps when Mr. Walpole is looking.  But there are doctors who are naturally cruel; and there are others who get used to cruelty and are callous about it.  They blind themselves to the souls of animals; and that blinds them to the souls of men and women.  You made a dreadful mistake about Louis; but you would not have made it if you had not trained yourself to make the same mistake about dogs.  You saw nothing in them but dumb brutes; and so you could see nothing in him but a clever brute.

Ridgeon [with sudden resolution] I made no mistake whatever about him.

Jennifer.  Oh, doctor!

Ridgeon [obstinately] I made no mistake whatever about him.

Jennifer.  Have you forgotten that he died?

Ridgeon [with a sweep of his hand towards the pictures] He is not dead.  He is there. [Taking up the book] And there.

Jennifer [springing up with blazing eyes] Put that down.  How dare you touch it?

Ridgeon, amazed at the fierceness of the outburst, puts it down with a deprecatory shrug.  She takes it up and looks at it as if he had profaned a relic.

Ridgeon.  I am very sorry.  I see I had better go.

Jennifer [putting the book down] I beg your pardon.  I forgot myself.  But it is not yet—­it is a private copy.

Ridgeon.  But for me it would have been a very different book.

Jennifer.  But for you it would have been a longer one.

Ridgeon.  You know then that I killed him?

Jennifer [suddenly moved and softened] Oh, doctor, if you acknowledge that—­if you have confessed it to yourself—­if you realize what you have done, then there is forgiveness.  I trusted in your strength instinctively at first; then I thought I had mistaken callousness for strength.  Can you blame me?  But if it was really strength—­if it was only such a mistake as we all make sometimes—­it will make me so happy to be friends with you again.

Ridgeon.  I tell you I made no mistake.  I cured Blenkinsop:  was there any mistake there?

Jennifer.  He recovered.  Oh, dont be foolishly proud, doctor.  Confess to a failure, and save our friendship.  Remember, Sir Ralph gave Louis your medicine; and it made him worse.

Ridgeon.  I cant be your friend on false pretences.  Something has got me by the throat:  the truth must come out.  I used that medicine myself on Blenkinsop.  It did not make him worse.  It is a dangerous medicine:  it cured Blenkinsop:  it killed Louis Dubedat.  When I handle it, it cures.  When another man handles it, it kills—­sometimes.