“Put yourself in her place. Would you like it if she expected you to give up your military career for her sake?” “She would never ask or expect such a thing. She knows that I could not do it, even to please her.” “Then return the compliment. She is willing to give up for your sake any hope of distinguishing herself further in her profession by means of original research, but she will not relinquish the practice of it. Allow her the freedom you claim for yourself--in fact you must allow it, if you mean to marry Georgia Keeling. She will be yours heart and soul, but a certain portion of her time and interest she will always give to her work.” “But come now, Lady Haigh, doesn’t that strike you as slightly rough on a man?” “It strikes me as merely just,” snapped Lady Haigh. “No portion of your time and interest will ever be given to your work, of course?” “Oh, but that’s different, you know,” said Dick, uncomfortably. “Do you really think that this sort of thing is meant for women?” “My dear Major North, I am not holding a brief for Women’s Rights. I am merely trying to bring you into line with facts. If you want arguments, no doubt Georgia will argue with you by the hour.” “I wish she was here to do it!” sighed Dick. “Would it be rude to remind you, Lady Haigh, that I haven’t seen her for three whole days?” “I suppose that means that you want me to fetch her for you. Well, I will just say this. Once you lamented to me that you had no tact. Now I believe that, until she finds him out, a bad man with tact will make a woman happier than a good man without it.” Lady Haigh paused triumphantly, as though to say, “Contradict that atrocious sentiment if you can!” but Dick made no attempt to do so, and she went on. “I’m afraid you would find it difficult to cultivate tact now, but if you will only try to consider things that affect Georgia from her point of view as well as your own, you will have made a good beginning.” She stepped out through the lattice, and presently Georgia entered, stethoscope in hand. “Well, and how do we find ourselves to-day?” she asked cheerfully, hoping that Dick would not notice the trembling in her voice. “How can you expect a patient to get better when his doctor does not come near him for days?” “You have always expressed such a dislike to lady doctors, that it struck us you might prefer to be without one.” “Ah, how did you come to be my doctor, by the bye?” “I knew you would have preferred the surgeon who came with you,” said Georgia, with resignation in her tones. “I will tell you how it was. He is very young and very new, and knows nothing about fever in practice, which makes him all the more sure about it in theory. He has half-a-dozen infallible remedies, and he was rejoicing at the prospect of being able to test them all on you, when I stepped in and claimed you as my patient. And now I suppose you will tell me that you would prefer to be killed by him rather than be cured by me?”