id non-committally.

He examined the tongue, then the eyeballs, after which he held out his
hand without looking round and took the thermometer Esther had ready
for him. The silence continued while the old man sat sucking the
little glass tube.

"Well," said the doctor at last, holding the instrument to the light,
"he certainly has got a slight temperature."

Miss Clifford let her breath escape explosively.

"Thank Heaven for that!" she ejaculated in a tone of relief.

All eyes turned towards her in surprise.

"I suppose you're glad I'm ill, are you, Dido?" queried her brother
dryly.

"Nonsense, don't be absurd! I'm only glad you'll have to admit you're
ill and be put to bed properly where we can look after you. You should
have been there days ago."

"Oh, very well, I'll go to bed. You'll never be happy till you've laid
me by the heels, you and Therese both. What have I got, doctor? Touch
of 'flu? They call a lot of things 'flu these days."

The doctor smiled and clapped him on the back reassuringly.

"Oh, perhaps. It's impossible to say yet. However, your sister's
right; you mustn't be walking about with a temperature, however
slight." He rose and the others followed suit. "Go home, get
comfortably to bed, and I'll drop in early in the evening and have
another look at you."

"Then you think it's nothing serious?" inquired Lady Clifford with a
sudden appeal, her beautiful eyes glancing from her husband to the
doctor.

"You know, doctor," broke in Miss Clifford eagerly, "I've sometimes
wondered if there was anything wrong with the water. I ..."

"Rubbish, Dido, I never drink the water."

There was a general laugh at this.

"I'm not sure that you don't," insisted the old lady defensively. "And
I've always been told the water in France is only to be used
externally."

"And precious little of it is used in that way," commented Sir Charles,
moving towards the door, where he looked back with a curt, ironic
gesture of leave-taking. "It's au revoir then, doctor, and not
good-bye. Coming, Dido?"

His wife followed him to the outer door.

"In a minute I will join you, darling. Get into the car and put the
rug well around you."

She bundled the fur collar closely about his throat and patted him
affectionately on the shoulder. He was well over six feet, even though
he stooped a little, so that she had to stand on tiptoe to reach him.

"There, I'm all right," the old man objected testily,