"Why the ladies, especially?"
"I understood your practice lay chiefly among the neurotic smart women of London."
"No."
Isaacson's voice echoed the dryness of Doctor Hartley's.
"I'm sorry."
"May I ask why?"
"On the other side of the water we find them—shall I say the best type of patients?"
"Ah!"
Isaacson remembered the sentence of Mrs. Armine which had sent him straight to the sick man. He seemed to detect her cruel prompting in the half-evasive yet sufficiently clear words just spoken.
"Now about Mr. Armine," he said, brushing the topic of himself away. "I am sure—"