ngements on principle, though he always fell in with them later.
This, he considered, was his way of showing his man's authority.

As it grew cooler they went up on the roof. The iron was hot, the stone
coping still warm, but there was a faint breeze blowing in from the sea,
and the blue air was less heavy.

"What can we do?" he said, helplessly, looking down on the few weary
people crawling through the streets.

"Nothing," she said, leaning back against the chimney-stack.

"I'll tell you what. Let's go on with those lectures I was giving you
before--before I went rocky! Or rather, look here, I'll tell you what!
The old Dean said I was one of the best men in England in midder."

"What's that?" she said, resignedly. She did not want to listen just
then. She wanted to be quiet and think out the very obtrusive financial
and moral problem of getting away. She felt like Lot when he knew of the
destruction to come upon the cities of the Plain. But she felt one
couldn't walk out of things as Lot had walked. Only--she had to do her
worrying with placid face, giving lip-service to his entertainment; it
would never do for him to know the convolutions that had led her to any
conclusion; he was an innate pessimist, she an optimist. So she thought
with half her mind and listened with the other half.

"Midwifery! We call it midder, you know," he said. "I was always awfully
interested in women--as cases."

He took out an envelope to make notes, and a pencil. She felt a little
compunction as she saw his look of keen interest and realized that the
study of medicine was probably the only thing on earth that could take
him out of himself.

"We've to begin at the beginning," he said intently. "It's amazing how
few lay people know even the elements of embryology."

She heard his voice, and all the time she was wondering if she could
write and tell her uncle the truth, asking him to let her and Louis come
and work for him without any pay till they had paid back the fifty
pounds she had borrowed. He had said it was far from civilization. That
was what she needed!

"See?" came Louis's voice, keen and interested, and the words "cells"
and "mulberry-form" floated into her consciousness.

"Yes, I think I will--it's the only way," she said, answering aloud the
silent question.

"I don't believe you've heard a word, you young sinner! You confounded
second-sighted Kelts--one never knows where you are! But next week I'll
give you a writ