She leaned over and laid her head upon his shoulder. "Tell me all about it, Edgar," she whispered; "as much as you know yourself." "I have told you nearly all, Jane. I saw Dr. Carrington, and he asked me a great many questions, and examined me here"--touching his chest. "He fancies the organs are not sound, and declined giving the certificate." "That your chest is not sound?" asked Jane. "He said the lungs." "Ah!" she uttered. "What else did he say?" "Well, he said nothing about heart, or liver, or any other vital part, so I conclude they are all right, and that there was nothing to say," replied Mr. Halliburton, attempting to be cheerful. "I could have told him my brain was strong enough had he asked about that, for I'm sure it gets its full share of work. I need not have mentioned this to you at all, Jane, but for a perplexing bit of advice the doctor gave me." Jane sat straight in her chair again, and looked at Mr. Halliburton. The colour was beginning to return to her face. He continued: "Dr. Carrington earnestly recommends me to remove from London. Indeed--he said--that it was necessary--if I would get well. No wonder that you found my manner absent," he continued very rapidly after his hesitation, "with that unpalatable counsel to digest." "Did he think you very ill?" she breathed. "He did not say I was 'very ill,' Jane. I am not very ill, as you may see for yourself. My dear, what he said was that my lungs were--were----" "Diseased?" she put in. "Diseased. Yes, that was it," he truthfully replied. "It is the term that medical men apply when they wish to indicate delicacy. And he strenuously recommended me to leave London." "For how long? Did he say?" "He said for good." Jane felt startled. "How could it be done, Edgar?" "In truth I do not know. If I leave London I leave my living behind me. Now you see why I was so absorbed at tea-time. When you saw me go out, I was going round to Allen's." "And what does _he_ say?" she eagerly interrupted. "Oh, he seems to think it a mere nothing, compared with Dr. Carrington. He agreed with him on one point--that I ought to live out of London." "Edgar, I will tell you what I think must be done," said Jane, after a pause. "I have not had time to reflect much upon it: but it strikes me that it would be advisable for you to see another doctor, and take his opinion: some man who is clever in affections of the lungs. Go to him to-morrow, without any delay. Should he say that you must leave London, of course we must leave it, no matter what the sacrifice." The advice corresponded with Mr. Halliburton's own opinion, and he resolved to follow it. A conviction amounting to a certainty was upon him, that, go to what doctor he might, the fiat would be the same as Dr. Carrington's. He did not say so to Jane. On the contrary, he spoke of these insurance-office doctors as being over-fastidious in the interests of the office; and he tried to deceive his own heart with the sophistry.