‘I am rejoiced to hear it. But my friend will be here to-night. He is one of the best of men. He saved my life once under circumstances of much hardship and danger. We have faced death together. I should not be here to tell you this but for Lucius Davoren.’ ‘Lucius Davoren!’ She repeated the name with a wondering look, horror-stricken, her hand clutching the back of the chair from which she had risen. ‘Is your friend’s name Lucius Davoren?’ ‘Yes. Can it be possible that you know him? That would be very strange.’ ‘No,’ she said slowly; ‘I do not know this friend of yours. But his name is associated with a somewhat painful memory.’ ‘Very painful, I fear, or you would hardly have grown so pale at the mention of his name,’ said Geoffrey, with a jealous horror of anything like a secret in his divinity’s past life. ‘I was foolish to be agitated by such a trifle. After all it’s only a coincidence. I daresay there are a good many Davorens in the world,’ she answered carelessly. ‘I doubt it. Davoren is not a common name.’ ‘Has your friend, this Mr. Lucius Davoren, been successful in life?’ ‘I can hardly say that. As I told you when I first spoke of him, he is by no means distinguished. He is indeed almost at the beginning of his professional career. Yet were I racked with the most obscure of diseases, I should laugh all your specialists to scorn and cry, “Send for Lucius Davoren.”’ ‘He is poor, I suppose?’ she asked curiously. ‘Very likely; in the sense of having no money for luxury, splendour, or pleasure—things which he holds in sovereign contempt. He can afford to give the best years of his youth to patient labour among the poor. That is the education he has chosen for himself, rather than a West-end practice and a single brougham; and I believe he will find it the shortest road to everlasting fame.’ ‘I am glad you believe in him,’ she said warmly, ‘since he is such a great man.’ ‘But you have not yet recovered from the shock his name caused you just now.’ ‘Not quite. My darling’s illness has made me nervous. If you think your friend will not be offended, I would rather avoid seeing him,’ she added, in a pleading tone. ‘I really don’t feel well enough to see a stranger. I have passed through such alternations of hope and fear during the last few days. Will your friend forgive me if I leave Mrs. Grabbit to receive his instructions? She is a good soul, and will forget nothing he tells her.’