"On your knees," I commanded. He went livid. "Dr. Pinsent," said Miss Ottley, "I beg you not to interfere. You will only make it the harder for me."
She might as well have spoken to a fence. I never took my eyes from Belleville. "You know what you ought to do," I murmured. "If you compel me to teach you, you'll repent the object lesson in a hospital."
He fell on his knees before the girl. "I apologise," he groaned out in a choking voice.
I bowed him out of the room as deferentially as if he were a woman. He vanished silently. Miss Ottley was dressed for the opera.
"You are going out?" I asked.
"Y-yes," she said. She was powdering her face before a mirror.
"To the opera?"
"Yes. To meet there Mrs. Austin."
"Dare you walk there—with me for a companion?"