"More or less good friends!" repeated Laura, in a disappointed tone. "Herbert calls you his best friend."
"I dare say he has many better than I am," answered Ghisleri, quietly. "But I have certainly never liked any man as much as I like him. That is why I come to you to-day. Do you not think that he should be taken care of, or, at least thoroughly examined by the best specialist to be found?"
"I have thought of it," said Laura, after a short pause. "Of course the doctor comes regularly, but I do not think he is a really great authority. I am afraid that anything like a consultation might alarm Herbert. I see how determined he is to be cheerful, but I cannot help seeing also that he is despondent about himself."
"There need be nothing like a consultation. Will you trust me in this matter?"
Laura looked at him. She felt, on a sudden, the old, almost inexplicable, timid dislike of him with which she had long been familiar, and she hesitated before she answered.
"Could I not manage it myself?" she asked abruptly. "It would seem more natural."
Ghisleri's face grew slowly cold, and his eyes fixed themselves on the fire.
"I thought I might be able to help you," he said. "Have you any particular reason for distrusting me as you do, Lady Herbert?"
Laura's face contracted. She was not angry, but she was sorry that she had shown him what she thought, and it was hard to answer the question truthfully, for she was not really sure whether she had any excuse for doubting his frankness or not. In the present instance she assuredly had none.
"I should certainly never distrust you where Herbert is concerned," she said, after a short pause. "It is only that it seems more natural, as I said, that I should be the one to speak to him and to arrange about the specialist's visit."