"Certainly. There is some beef-tea ready. Here it is. Shall I feed you?" "Thank you. My left arm is tied up, and this broken finger is very painful. Bat I am giving you no end of trouble. I don't know how I shall be able to repay you and Mr. Fortescue for all your kindness." "_Ach Gott!_ Don't mention it, my dear sir. Mr. Fortescue said you were to have every attention; and when a fellow-man has been broken all to pieces it is our duty to do for him what we can. Who knows? Perhaps some time I may be broken all to pieces myself. But I will not ride your fiery horses. My weight is seventeen stone, and if I was to throw myself off a galloping horse as you did, _ach Gott!_ I should be broken past mending." Mr. Geist made an attentive and genial nurse, discoursing so pleasantly and fluently that, greatly to my satisfaction (for I was very weak), my part in the conversation was limited to an occasional monosyllable; but he said nothing on the subject as to which I was most anxious for information--Mr. Fortescue--and, as he clearly desired to avoid it, I refrained from asking questions that might have put him in a difficulty and exposed me to a rebuff. I found out afterward that neither he nor Ramon ever discussed their master, and though Mrs. Tomlinson, my third nurse (a buxom, healthy, middle-aged widow, whose position seemed to be something between that of housekeeper and upper servant), was less reticent, it was probably because she had so little to tell. I learned, among other things, that the habits of the household were almost as regular as those of a regiment, and that the servants, albeit kindly treated and well paid, were strictly ruled, even comparatively slight breaches of discipline being punished with instant dismissal. At half-past ten everybody was supposed to be in bed, and up at six; for at seven Mr. Fortescue took his first breakfast of fruit and dry toast. According to Mrs. Tomlinson (and this I confess rather surprised me) he was an essentially busy man. His only idle time was that which he gave to sleep. During his waking hours he was always either working in his study, his laboratory, or his conservatories, riding and driving being his sole recreations. "He is the most active man I ever knew, young or old," said Mrs. Tomlinson, "and a good master--I will say that for him. But I cannot make him out at all. He seems to have neither kith nor kin, and yet--This is quite between ourselves, Mr. Bacon--" "Of course, Mrs. Tomlinson, quite." "Well, there is a picture in his room as he keeps veiled and locked up in a sort of shrine; but one day he forgot to turn the key, and I--I looked." "Naturally. And what did you see?" "The picture of a woman, dark, but, oh, so beautiful--as beautiful as an angel.... I thought it was, may be, a sweetheart or something, but she is too young for the likes of him."