*****

Doctor Renton came into the room, bearing in his arms a great bunch of roses.

"From your mother," he said; "she came round with them this morning. She wanted to come with me."

"And why didn't she?" I felt my eyes kindle.

"You know," he replied with a shrug.

"Peter is a beast!" I said.

He smiled.

"You are evidently better. I am glad to find you downstairs. How did you manage the removal?"

I described it fully, and he laughed.

"That girl of yours is a brick. I should keep her."