He began to pace up and down again, locking his hands behind him, and alternately clasping them behind his head.
"Why should I care?" he began again, restlessly. "There is a fate in all these things, and if the fate means that this child shall grow up, and live, and cheat another man, why, then the fate must do its work, and nothing that I can say will change it. I have had it in my mind sometimes to pray--if any prayers could avail--that the child might die; that's one of the mysteries of this strange creation of ours, that so fair and sweet a thing should grow up, to foul men's ways, and spoil their work. I wonder if I----"
He was interrupted by the abrupt entry of Mrs. Blissett. That worthy woman appeared altogether demoralized, shaken to her prosaic depths; she came in panting, with one hand pressed to her ample bosom. The man stopped in his walk and turned savagely upon her, although without speaking.
"Please, sir, there's a lady, sir, as do be come to see ye; and she----"
Dr. Vernier, with an angry exclamation, took a stride toward her, but stopped suddenly. There was a shadow behind the woman--the shadow of some one else, creeping into the room with a hand against the wall as though groping blindly. The man had seen it, and stood, like one turned to stone, watching it. Mrs. Blissett, following the direction of his eyes, turned swiftly, and backed away from it. The figure, still with a hand against the wall, came slowly along the side of the room, with her eyes fixed only on him. He seemed to recover himself at last with a start, drew a deep breath, and waved Mrs. Blissett from the room with an impatient arm. "You need not stay--you need not stay. I will see the lady."
Mrs. Blissett evidently had a vague idea that this was a night when anything might happen; she had performed her small duties about the place for many months, and had never seen a living creature come to the house, and on this night the place had already been twice invaded. She backed out of the room with a sigh of resignation and closed the door.
The stranger had put an arm across her eyes, as though to shield herself from the doctor's gaze, and was leaning against the wall; she seemed, from the shaking of her slight body, to be weeping. There was silence between them for some moments--a silence which the man broke; his voice sounded strained and unnatural.