"Virginia"--Thomasina could be no longer restrained--"why don't you keep the doctor's office in better order? Look at that corner. And at that!" Virginia leaned against the door. "Don't believe doctor he could find things if it was too clean, Miss Thomas'. Could I get you something--glass of water or something? You look all wore out." Thomasina smiled faintly. The race disarmed anger. "No, I thank you." She started to Dr. Green's office on a third morning. As she was about to leave her door she saw the doctor entering the gate. "I got back on the nine o'clock train," he explained. "This morning Virginia came early--early, if you please--to tell me that you have been twice to my office. She suspects all sorts of afflictions. Surely you are not ill!" Thomasina led the way into her parlor and sat down upon her throne-like chair. Her pale face wore both a judicial and an embarrassed air. "You should have a wife, Dr. Green. Virginia should be taken in hand, dealt with, commanded, bullied." "I agree with you. You are thinking of my office. I suppose when I'm away, Virginia's 'on the town' as she says." "But a wife could make a fine girl of Virginia." Dr. Green looked at Thomasina with faint astonishment. It was not like her to assume so intimate and bantering an air. "I hope there is nothing serious the matter. What are your symptoms? Do you not think it is the intense heat that has affected you?" "The heat never troubles me. It is a patient of yours who worries me. I mean Mrs. Lister." "Mrs. Lister! there's no reason to worry about her. There was nothing seriously wrong with her when I went away and I found no message when I got back." "They wouldn't send a message about this. Her trouble is not to be cured by medicine, it is of the mind." Dr. Green pursed his lips and frowned. He was surprised at Thomasina and was prepared to give her his most earnest attention. She would not speak to him in this fashion without good reason. He rested his arms on the arms of his chair and leaned forward, his hands clasped lightly. Whatever his origin, he was a person of distinguished presence, and, except in the matter of order in his office, of fastidious taste. "Well, Miss Thomasina," said he in his clear, deliberate, well-modulated voice. When Thomasina began to speak in a high tone, as though she were forcing herself a little, he frowned again; as she went on a dull color stole into his cheek and his motionless figure seemed to stiffen. He might well blush to hear so extraordinary a betrayal of confidence.