"Dear Leo, what do you mean? I verily believe you are jealous of your old aunt's affection," the old lady said, in surprise.
He did not reply; the girl outside heard him advance to wards the hall-door.
"My poor Kitty! It is impossible that her noiseless beneficence, her kindly presence, should be disagreeable to any man on earth," his aunt said, following him. "I have never seen a girl who combined such childlike innocence with so much womanly dignity, such keenness of intellect with such kindness of heart. I am irresistibly attracted by her; and I cannot believe that my Leo can be so unjust as to deny merit to any woman save to the one whom he adores as his future wife."
Kitty started; the doctor burst into a laugh, so bitter, so loud, that she recoiled in terror. Involuntarily she turned to flee; no, she would remain,—she was the cause of that scornful laugh,—she would hear how the doctor would refute his aunt's good opinion of her, undeserved though it were.
"You are wont to be keen-sighted, aunt, but here you fail lamentably," he said, pausing suddenly in his inharmonious laughter. "Let it go! I shall not dispute what you say; why should I? I have but one request to make of you: that until my departure we may be together as we have been hitherto,—alone. You used to be content without other society than mine; try to be so again during the few months of my stay here. I do not wish to have any one coming and going."
"Not even Kitty?"
A sound as of an impatient stamp of the foot upon the sanded tiles of the hall-floor reached the young girl's ears. "Good heavens, aunt, will you force me to——" he exclaimed, angrily: the voice was hardly to be recognized as his.
"God forbid, Leo! everything shall be as you wish," the old lady interrupted him, terrified, and yet attempting no concealment of her regret. "I will do all that I can to banish her as kindly as possible, that she may not suffer more than is necessary. But how agitated you are, Leo, and how your hand burns! You are ill. You are wearing yourself out for your patients. At least you shall have repose here in your own home rely upon it! Let me mix you a glass of lemonade."
He thanked her, but refused the proffered kindness. Kitty heard the aunt go towards the kitchen, probably to arrange the evening meal, and immediately afterwards the doctor appeared at the hall-door.