"She fell down yonder," he answered, with an odd quaver in his voice, as
he pointed to a rough and rather high portion of the cliff running
inland; "the stones rolled from under her feet, so," he added, crushing
down a quantity of the loose gravel with his foot, "and she slipped. She
lay on the shingle underneath for two hours before I found her; two
hours, Dr. Martin!"

"That was bad," I said, for the good fellow's voice failed him--"very
bad. A fall like that might have killed her."

We went on, he carrying his oars, and I my little portmanteau. I heard
Tardif muttering. "Killed her!" in a tone of terror; but his face
brightened a little when we reached the gate of the farm-yard. He laid
down the oars noiselessly upon the narrow stone causeway before the
door, and lifted the latch as cautiously as if he were afraid to disturb
some sleeping baby.

He had given me no information with regard to my patient; and the sole
idea I had formed of her was of a strong, sturdy Sark woman, whose
constitution would be tough, and her temperament of a stolid, phlegmatic
tone. There was not ordinarily much sickness among them, and this case
was evidently one of pure accident. I expected to find a nut-brown,
sunburnt woman, with a rustic face, who would very probably be impatient
and unreasonable under the pain I should be compelled to inflict upon
her.

It had been my theory that a medical man, being admitted to the highest
degree of intimacy with his patients, was bound to be as insensible as
an anchorite to any beauty or homeliness in those whom he was attending
professionally; he should have eyes only for the malady he came to