much he did know, and my
speculations kept me silent. "But come in here a moment," he
continued, just as I decided that he knew nothing at all. And, leading
me into his minute consulting-room, Dr. Theobald solemnly presented me
with a sovereign by way of compensation, which I pocketed as solemnly,
and with as much gratitude as if I had not fifty of them distributed
over my person as it was. The good fellow had quite forgotten my
social status, about which he himself had been so particular at our
earliest interview; but he had never accustomed himself to treat me as
a gentleman, and I do not suppose he had been improving his memory by
the tall tumbler which I saw him poke behind a photograph as we entered.

"There's one thing I should like to know before I go," said I, turning
suddenly on the doctor's mat, "and that is whether Mr. Maturin is
really ill or not!"

I meant, of course, at the present moment, but Dr. Theobald braced
himself like a recruit at the drill-sergeant's voice.

"Of course he is," he snapped--"so ill as to need a nurse who can
nurse, by way of a change."

With that his door shut in my face, and I had to go my way, in the dark
as to whether he had mistaken my meaning, and was telling me a lie, or
not.

But for my misgivings upon this point I might have extracted some very
genuine enjoyment out of the next few days. I had decent clothes to my
back, with money, as I say, in most of the pockets, and more freedom to
spend it than was possible in the constant society of a man whose
personal liberty depended on a universal supposition that he was dead.
Raffles was as bold as ever, and I as fond of him, but whereas he would
run any risk in a professional exploit, there were many innocent
recreations still open to me which would have been sheer madness in
him. He could not even watch a match, from the sixpenny seats, at
Lord's cricket-ground, where the Gentlemen were every year in a worse
way without him. He never travelled by rail, and dining out was a risk
only to be run with some ulterior object in view. In fact, much as it
had changed, Raffles could no longer show his face with perfect
impunity in any quarter or at any hour. Moreover, after the lesson he
had now learnt, I foresaw increased caution on his part in this
respect. But I myself was under no such perpetual disadvantage, and,
while what was good enough for Raffles was quite good enough for me so
long as we were together, I saw no