“Because, you see, I have brought you here under false pretenses.”
“False pretenses!” her old friend laughed contentedly, “that’s actionable.”
“I’m not ill. It isn’t about my health I want to see you.”
“Then I’ve lost a very attractive patient,” he mocked at her in affectionate retort.
“Don’t joke—please. It is very serious.”
“So you wrote.”
“And I didn’t say I was ill. But, of course, that would be what you thought, when I begged you to come for a few days, and knowing how busy you always are, and asking you to say nothing to Aunt Caroline or any one, but just seem to be on an ordinary visit.”
“I was delighted to come,” he assured her gravely. “And, as it happens, I did not think you were ill.”
“No?”
“No.”