Philips nodded.

“Is any one else there?” said Smithers, after a pause, and in a strange, sad voice, in which there was a faltering tone which Philips, in his fright, did not notice.

“Miss Potts,” he said.

“She is treated cruelly,” said Smithers. “They say she is a prisoner?”

Philips nodded.

“Has she been sick?”

“Yes.”

“How long?”

“Eight months, last year.”

“Is she well now?”