She had eaten some chicken for dinner, and a little sweetbread for supper. There had been interludes of refreshment: an egg beaten up with milk, a cup of tea and bread-and-butter, and so on. "You don't starve her," laughed Mr. Tamlyn. "No, indeed," warmly replied madame. "I do what I can to nourish her." "What do you take to drink?" continued the doctor. "Nothing to speak of," interposed madame. "A drop of cold brandy-and-water with her dinner." "Patty thinks it is better for me than wine," put in Lady Jenkins. "I don't know but it is. You don't take too much of it?" Lady Jenkins paused. "Patty knows. Do I take too much, Patty?" Patty was smiling, amused at the very idea. "I measure one table-spoonful of brandy into a tumbler and put three or four table-spoonfuls of water to it. If you think that is too much brandy, Mr. Tamlyn, I will put less." "Oh, nonsense," said old Tamlyn. "It's hardly enough." "She has the same with her supper," concluded madame. Well, old Tamlyn could make nothing of his suspicions. And he came home from Jenkins House and told Knox he thought they must be both mistaken. "Why did you speak of it to madame?" asked Dr. Knox. "We agreed to be silent for a short time." "I don't see why she should not be told, Arnold. She is straightforward as the day--and Lettice Lane seems so, too. I tasted the beef-tea they gave her--took a cup of it, in fact--and I tasted the physic. Madame says it is impossible that anything in the shape of drugs is being given to her; and upon my word I think so too." "All the same, I wish you had not spoken." And a little time went on. III. The soirée to-night was at Rose Villa; and Mrs. Knox, attired in a striped gauze dress and the jangling ornaments she favoured, stood to receive her guests. Beads on her thin brown neck, beads on her sharp brown wrists, beads in her ears, and beads dropping from her waist. She looked all beads. They were drab beads to-night, each resting in a little cup of gold. Janet and Miss Cattledon went up in the brougham, the latter more stiffly ungracious than usual, for she still resented Mrs. Knox's former behaviour to Janet. I walked. "Where can the people from next door be?" wondered Mrs. Knox, as the time went on and Lady Jenkins did not appear. For Lady Jenkins went abroad again. In a day or two after Mr. Tamlyn's interview with her, Lefford had the pleasure of seeing her red-wheeled carriage whirling about the streets, herself and her companion within it. Old Tamlyn said she was getting strong. Dr. Knox said nothing; but he kept his eyes open. "I hope she is not taken ill again? I hope she is not too drowsy to come!" reiterated Mrs. Knox. "Sometimes madame can't rouse her up from these sleepy fits, do what she will." Lady Jenkins was the great card of the soirée, and Mrs. Knox grew cross. Captain Collinson had not come either. She drew me aside.