"That seems to surprise you?"
"It is the dual character that surprises me," she answered, "Your practice makes you a professional man, and you are a county magnate also by right of your name and connections."
She evidently knew all about me already, and I was flattered by the interest she showed, which I thought special until I found that she was in the habit of knowing, and knowing accurately too, all about everyone with whom she was brought into close contact.
"I cannot imagine how you find time for it all," she continued; "you are not a general practitioner, I believe."
"Not exactly," I answered. "Of course I never refuse to attend in any case of emergency, but my regular practice is all consultation, and my speciality has somehow come to be nervous disorders. Sometimes I have my house full of patients—interesting cases which require close attention."
"I know," she said, "and poor people who cannot pay as often as the rich who will give you anything to attend them."
"I should very much like you to believe the most exaggerated accounts of my generosity if any such are about," I hastened to assure her; "but honesty compels me to explain that I benefit by every case which I treat successfully."
"Goto! you do not deceive me," she answered, laughing up in my face.
Her manner had quite changed now. She recognized me as one of her own caste, and knew that however friendly and familiar she might be I should not presume.
When it was time to think of my other guests, she begged to be allowed to remain in the library until they had all arrived.