"You need friends, you know," he said; "you're very awkwardly placed without any." "Oh, I do know! To have no friends is a crime; one's helpless without them. And a woman's helplessness is the best of reasons why no help should be extended to her. But it sounds a merciless argument, doctor--horribly merciless, at the beginning!" "It's a merciless life. Look here, Miss Brettan, I don't want to beat about the bush: you're in a beastly hole, and if I can pull you out of it I shall be glad--for your own sake, and for the sake of your dead father. It's like this, though; the only thing I can see my way to involves the comfort of someone else. You were talking about a place as companion; I can't live at home now, and my mother wants one." "Doctor!" She caught her breath. "If I were to take the responsibility of recommending you, it's probable she'd engage you; I think you'd suit her, but----Well, it's rather a large order!" "Oh, you should never be sorry!" she cried. "You shall never be sorry for trusting me, if you will!" "You see, it's not easy. It's not usual to go engaging a lady one meets for the first time." "Why, you wouldn't meet anybody else oftener," she pleaded eagerly; "if you advertised, you'd take the woman after the one interview. You wouldn't exchange a lot of visits and get friendly before you engaged her." He pulled at his moustache again. "But of course she wouldn't--wouldn't be starving," she added; "she wouldn't have fainted in your room. It'd be no more judicious, but it would be more conventional." "You argue neatly," he said with a smile. The smile encouraged her. She smiled response. He could not smile if he were going to refuse her, she felt. "Dr. Kincaid----" "One minute," he said; "I hear someone coming, I think. Excuse me!" It was Corri; he met him as he turned the handle, and drew him outside. "There's a woman in there," he said, "and a breakfast-tray. Come down on to the next landing; I want to speak to you." "What on earth----" said Corri. "Are you giving a party? What do you mean by a woman and a breakfast-tray? Did the woman bring the breakfast-tray?" "No, she brought a book. It's serious."