'Is it in the right place?' she asked him, when he put the queer-looking thing back in his pocket again.
'Is anybody's in the wrong place?' pursued Babs, leaning against his knee in the most friendly way imaginable.
'Sometimes,' said the doctor. He marvelled at himself for not feeling more irritated by her, when as a rule he found children so worrying.
'Is yours in the right place?' persisted Barbara.
'I--I hope so,' said the doctor, struggling with a grim smile.
'Same place as mine?' continued Barbara, eagerly.
Miss Finlayson put out her hand to stop her; but Babs did not see. The doctor saw, and did not take any notice.
'I imagine it is in the same place,' he said feebly.
'But how do you know, unless some one else finds it for you?' inquired Babs. 'You can't listen to your own heart through that funny thing, can you?'
'N--no, some one else has to find it,' admitted the doctor, and she supposed he had remembered something that made him feel shy, for he coloured furiously and rose to his feet rather hurriedly.
Babs stood gazing up at him attentively, while he exchanged parting words with Miss Finlayson. 'It's an awful pity you didn't go to see Kit when he was ill,' she remarked, directly there was an opportunity. 'Kit's doctor was a beast.'
The long oval face turned slightly red again; and Miss Finlayson said something very quickly about the wet evening.
'Yes,' replied the doctor, stammering a little; 'I am sorry the evening is so late,--so wet, I mean, and that I am so late in calling--positively the first minute I've had to-day,--extremely busy this time of year----'
A hand was stealing inside his, and he had to stop and look down again. 'Do you think you could go and see Kit next time he is ill?' asked Babs, appealingly. 'It isn't nice to have a beast for a doctor, when you're ill, is it?'
The doctor went on looking down at her with an odd sort of smile on his face. 'That reminds me,' he said--though how it reminded him the child could not for the moment imagine--'that your cousin Miss Urquhart charged me with a message for you. She sent you her love and promised to write soon. I hope I have given it correctly.'
'Oh!' cried Barbara, with great excitement. 'Do you know Jill?' The doctor kept hold of her hand and nodded. 'And Auntie Anna? And the boys--_all_ of them? Then you must know Kit!'