She lifted it for my inspection, and I began a protracted examination.
"What would you prescribe?" she inquired, with an absent-minded glance at the professor's closed door.
"I don't know; perhaps a slight but firm pressure of the finger-tips—"
"You tried that this afternoon."
"But the dog interrupted us—"
"Interrupted you. Besides—"
"What?"
"I don't think you ought to," she said.
Sitting there before the oven, side by side, hand innocently clasped in hand, we heard the drumming of the dew on the roof, the night-wind stirring the palms, the muffled snoring of the professor, the faint whisper and crackle of the fire.
A single candle burned brightly, piling our shadows together on the wall behind us; moonlight silvered the window-panes, over which crawled multitudes of soft-winged moths, attracted by the candle within.