"What a time you must have had of it that night at the Wood! I was proud of you!"
"I wish you had more cause, dear. My duties were simple in the extreme."
"And the country doctor—what did he say when he found how you had risen to the occasion?"
Mona's eyes were fixed on the ceiling again.
"I don't think he said anything that is likely to live in history. I believe he ventured to suggest that Maggie might have some beef-tea."
This, as Dudley could have testified, was a pure fabrication.
"I don't suppose he would be man enough to admit it, but he must have seen that you were in your proper place there—not he."
Mona opened her lips to reply, and then closed them again.
"Maggie has not been my only patient by any means," she said finally. "I have had no end of practice. I assure you I might have set up my carriage, if I had been paid for it all. Oh, Doris, it is sad work sometimes!" and she told the story of the last patient she had had.
"Poor soul! Glad as I am that you have left that place, I don't know how you could bring yourself to leave her."