"She is very anæmic and her heart isn't quite what it ought to be, perhaps." "Isn't it? Dear me! So her heart is affected, you say? But surely you can cure it, can't you, Doctor?" The large face simpered childishly. He glared at her with undisguised dislike. "Please take me seriously, Mme. Petrovskey. There is nothing comical about the situation." "Unless you except the secrecy," she rejoined with unexpected dryness. He bristled perceptibly. "Secrecy?" "I don't know what else to call it." The coquettish manner had disappeared. "It is quite obvious that my daughter-in-law is going to have a child, although of course she hardly shows it as yet. But what I cannot understand is why she has not told me about it. It seems very underhanded and strange, to say the least, decidedly unethical, not to say suspicious on your part." "Unethical? Suspicious? What do you mean?" he cried, taken unawares, and conscious of rising fury. The guileless China-blue eyes opened wide. "Why, nothing, of course, against you! Only I thought that perhaps there might be some reason for all this secrecy." "What reason should there be?" he exclaimed irritably. "Mrs. Petrovskey, like many other young women in her situation, has had an urgent desire to keep her condition to herself as long as possible. I assure you it is quite an ordinary phase in pregnancy." "Oh, is that so? How very quaint. I'm such a very simple person myself that it strikes me as very strange that a young woman should not want to tell her husband of an expected child, that is, of course, supposing it to be legitimate." Dr. Elliott's lips grew white. What in hell was the old she-devil driving at? "It might seem strange to a casual observer," he said, very much on his guard. "But to a doctor it is very ordinary. Quite a normal idiosyncrasy, I assure you." Her manner changed, became charged once more with heavy coquetry. "I'm so relieved to hear you say so. Of course I was not insinuating anything."--(So she had been, after all!)--"But it is so comforting to be reassured. I have so much confidence in you, Dr. Elliott. You cannot imagine what a pleasure it is to me to see the delightful friendship between you and my frail, little daughter-in-law, poor, dear child. Let me see, you have been friends for over a year, have you not?" She encountered the murderous gleam in his eye with a bland smile. "You are mistaken," he said curtly. "It is not quite four months since I attended Mrs. Petrovskey for the first time!" "Oh, dear me! I had imagined you had met long before that. How could I have made such a mistake?" "I'm sure I have no idea." A frown between his heavy brows, he regarded her gravely. "Well, well, it has all been very sudden, hasn't it? You seem like an old friend to us all. Why, Claire positively raves over you." "I cannot imagine Mrs. Petrovskey raving over anything or anybody, least of all a prosaic doctor like myself."