"Well--I don't know--she" she consulted the fire intensely, looking for the truth; "she seems to me too strong for that." Light! Women have no pity on women ... they _know_ how _strong_ women are; a sick man _is_ more helpless and pitiful than a sick woman; almost as helpless as a child. People in order of strength ... women, men, children. This man without his worldly props, his money and his job and his health had not a hundredth part of the strength of a woman ... nor had Dr. Densley.... "I think she _fascinated_ me." Mr. Taunton gathered himself together in his chair and sat very upright. "She has an exceptional power of inspiring affection--affection and the desire to give her the help she so sorely needs." "Perhaps that is it" said Miriam judicially. But you are very much mistaken in calling on me for help ... 'domestic work and the care of the aged and the sick'--very convenient--all the stuffy nerve-racking never-ending things to be dumped on to women--who are to be openly praised and secretly despised for their unselfishness--I've got twice the brain power you have. You are something of a scholar; but there is a way in which my time is more valuable than yours. There is a way in which it is more right for you to be tied to this woman than for me. Your reading is a habit, like most men's reading, not a quest. You don't want it disturbed. But you are kinder than I am. You are splendid. It will be awful--you don't know how awful yet--poor little man. "I think it has been so in my case if you will allow me to tell you." "Oh yes _do_" said Miriam a little archly--"of course--I know--I mean to say Miss Dear has told me." "Yes" he said eagerly. "How things are" she finished looking shyly into the fire. "Nevertheless if you will allow me I should like to tell you exactly what has occurred and to ask your advice as to the future. My mother and sisters are in the Midlands." "Yes" said Miriam in a carefully sombre non-committal tone; waiting for the revelation of some of the things men expect from mothers and sisters and wondering whether he was beginning to see her unsuitability for the rôle of convenient sister.