"Stop him—stop him! Say I have something particular to say. Do stop him!" It must be something very particular, Nurse thinks. But in any case the patient's demand would have to be complied with. So the Earl is recaptured and brought back.
"Is it anything I can do for you, Mr. Torrens? I am quite at your service."
"Yes—something of importance to me. Is Mrs. Bailey there?"
"She is just going." She had not intended to do so. But this was a hint clearly. It was accepted.
"All clear!" says the Earl. "And the door closed."
"My sister has promised to ask the Countess and your daughter—Lady Gwen, is it not?"
"That is my daughter's name, Gwendolen. 'Has promised to ask them' ... what?"
"To give me an opportunity before I go of thanking them both for all the great kindness they have shown me, and of apologizing for my wish to defer the interview."
"Yes—but why me?... I mean that that is all quite in order, but how do I come in?" As the speaker's voice smiles as well as his face, his hearer's blindness does not matter.
"Only this way. You know the doctors say my eyesight is not incurable—probably will come all to rights of itself...."