"Certainly not. I only think that you can nurse him just as effectually and tenderly without all the world knowing the claim he has upon you."
"You are quite certain that his memory and power of recognition will not return?"
Mr. Strafford repeated what Dr. Hardy had said.
"I must think," Mrs. Costello answered. "Everything has come upon me so quickly and confusingly, that I cannot decide all at once. Give me a little while to consider."
She leaned back wearily, and Mr. Strafford, taking a book, went and sat down at the further end of the room. So they remained till Mrs. Bellairs and Mrs. Morton came in together.
When they did so, Mrs. Costello looked up with a half smile,
"I am something like the old man in the fable," she said, "every new piece of advice I receive alters my plans."
"How?" asked Mrs. Bellairs. "Who has been advising you now?"
"No new adviser, at any rate. My old and tried friend there, who, I believe, gives quite as much thought to my affairs as if they were his own."
Mr. Strafford came forward.