Blind Love

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.