Here was the opportunity offered of following the doctor's advice, and
putting his wife's credulity to the test. With her knowledge of
Vimpany, would she really believe the story which had imposed on the
strangers who managed the hospital? Lord Harry made up his mind, to try
the experiment. No matter what the result might be, it would bring the
responsibilities that were crushing him to an end. He need say no more,
if the deception succeeded. He could do no more, if it failed. Under
the influence of this cheering reflection, he recovered his temper; his
handsome face brightened again with its genial boyish smile.
"What a wonderful woman you are!" he cried. "Isn't it just the thing
that I am here for, to tell you what I mean--and my clever wife sees
through and through me, and reminds me of what I must do! Pay my fee
beforehand, Iris! Give me a kiss--and my poor meaning shall be offered
in return. It will help me if you remember one thing. Vimpany and I are
old friends, and there's nothing we won't do to accommodate each other.
Mind that!"
Tried fairly on its own merits, the stupid fiction invented by the
doctor produced an effect for which Lord Harry was not prepared. The
longer Iris listened, the more strangely Iris looked at him. Not a word
fell from her lips when he had done. He noticed that she had turned
pale: it seemed to be almost possible that he had frightened her!
If his bird-witted brains could have coupled cause and effect, this was
exactly the result which he might have anticipated.
She was asked to believe that a new system of medical practice had been
invented by such a person as Mr. Vimpany. She was asked to believe that
an invalid from a foreign hospital, who was a perfect stranger to Lord
Harry, had been willingly made welcome to a bedroom at the cottage. She
was asked to believe that this astounding concession had been offered
to the doctor as a tribute of friendship, after her husband had himself
told her that he regretted having invited Vimpany, for the second time,
to become his guest. Here was one improbable circumstance accumulated
on another, and a clever woman was expected to accept the monstrous
excuses, thus produced, as a trustworthy statement of facts.
Irresistibly, the dread of some evil deed in secret contemplation cast
its darkening presence on the wife's mind. Lord Harry's observation had
not misled him, when he saw Iris turn pale, and when the doubt was
forced on him whether he might not have frightened her.