The child's face became strangely set and blank; his eyes looking vacant.
'Miss Limmer is very kind to us. She loves us and we love her dearly.
Ask Batsy,' he said in a monotonous voice, as if he were repeating a
lesson. 'Batsy, come here,' he said in the same voice. 'Is Miss Limmer
kind to us?'

Batsy threw up her eyes--it was like a stage effect, 'We love Miss Limmer
dearly, and she loves us. She is very, very kind to us, like our dear
mamma.' Her voice was monotonous too. 'I never can say the last part,'
said Tommy. 'Batsy knows it; about dear mamma.'

'Indeed!' said Merton. 'Tommy, _why_ did you come here?'

'I don't know. I told you that None-so-pretty told us to. She did it
after she saw _that_ when we were bathing.' Tommy raised one of his
little loose breeks that did not cover the knee.

_That_ was not pleasant to look on: it was on the inside of the right
thigh.

'How did you get hurt _there_?' asked Merton.

The boy's monotonous chant began again: his eyes were fixed and blank as
before. 'I fell off a tree, and my leg hit a branch on the way down.'

'Curious accident,' said Merton; 'and None-so-pretty saw the mark?'

'Yes.'

'And asked you how you got it?'

'Yes, and she saw blue marks on Batsy, all over her arms.'

'And you told None-so-pretty that you fell off a tree?'

'Yes.'

'And she told you to come here?'

'Yes, she had read your printed article.'

'Well, here is luncheon,' said Merton, and bade the office boy call Miss
Blossom from the inner chamber to share the meal. Batsy had as low a
chair as possible, and was disposing her napkin to do the duty of a
pinafore.

Miss Blossom entered from within with downcast eyes.

'None-so-pretty!'

'None-so-pretty!' shouted the children, while Tommy rushed to throw his
arms round her neck, to meet which she stooped down, concealing a face of
blushes. Batsy descended from her chair, waddled up, climbed another
chair, and attacked the girl from the rear. The office boy was arranging
luncheon. Merton called him to the writing-table, scribbled a note, and
said, 'Take that to Dr. Maitland, with my compliments.'

Maitland had been one of the guests at the inaugural dinner. He was
entirely devoid of patients, and was living on the anticipated gains of a
great work on Clinical Psychology.

'Tell Dr. Maitland he will find me at luncheon if he comes instantly,'
said Merton as the boy fled on his errand. 'I see that I need not
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