other time?"

"After to-morrow will be too late."

"Well, what about to-night?"

"The fact is, I've half promised to go with Dr Stirling to some
club or other after the show. Otherwise we might have had a quiet,
confidential chat in my rooms over at the Turk's Head. I never
dreamt--" Mr. Bryany was now as melancholy as a greedy lad who regards
rich fruit at arm's length through a plate-glass window, and he had
ceased to be patronizing.

"I'll soon get rid of Stirling for you," said Edward Henry, turning
instantly towards the doctor. The ways of Providence had been made
plain to Edward Henry. "I say, doc!" But the doctor and Brindley were
in conversation with another man at the open door of the box.

"What is it?" said Stirling.

"I've come to fetch you. You're wanted at my place."

"Well, you're a caution!" said Stirling.

"Why am I a caution?" Edward Henry smoothly protested. "I didn't tell
you before because I didn't want to spoil your fun."

Stirling's mien was not happy.

"Did they tell you I was here?" he asked.

"You'd almost think so, wouldn't you?" said Edward Henry in a playful,
enigmatic tone. After all, he decided privately, his wife was right;
it was better that Stirling should see the infant. And there was also
this natural human thought in his mind; he objected to the doctor
giving an entire evening to diversions away from home--he considered
that a doctor, when not on a round of visits, ought to be for ever
in his consulting-room, ready for a sudden call of emergency. It was
monstrous that Stirling should have proposed, after an escapade at the
music-hall, to spend further hours with chance acquaintances in vague
clubs! Half the town might fall sick and die while the doctor was
vainly amusing himself. Thus the righteous lay-man in Edward Henry!

"What's the matter?" asked Stirling.

"My eldest's been rather badly bitten by a dog, and the missis wants
it cauterized."

"Really?"

"Well, you bet she does!"

"Where's the bite?"

"In the calf."

The other man at the door having departed Robert Brindley abruptly
joined the conversation at this point.

"I suppose you've heard of that case of hydrophobia at Bleakridge?"
said Brindley.

Edward Henry's heart jumped.

"No, I haven't!" he said anxiously. "What is it?"

He gazed at the white blur of Brindley's face in the darkened box, and
he could hear the rapid clicking of the cinematograph behind him.

"Didn't you see it in the _Sig