"To be sure. I forgot that."

She said no more; but seemed thoughtful, and not quite satisfied.

On this Dr. Philip begged the maids to go near her as little as
possible. "You are not aware of it," said he, "but your looks, and
your manner of speaking, rouse her attention, and she is quicker than I
thought she was, and observes very subtly."

This was done; and then she complained that nobody came near her. She
insisted on coming down-stairs; it was so dull.

Dr. Philip consented, if she would be content to receive no visits for a
week.

She assented to that; and now passed some hours every day in the
drawing-room. In her morning wrappers, so fresh and crisp, she looked
lovely, and increased in health and strength every day.

Dr. Philip used to look at her, and his very flesh would creep at the
thought that, ere long, he must hurl this fair creature into the dust
of affliction; must, with a word, take the ruby from her lips, the rose
from her cheeks, the sparkle from her glorious eyes--eyes that beamed
on him with sweet affection, and a mouth that never opened, but to show
some simplicity of mind, or some pretty burst of the sensitive heart.

He put off, and put off, and at last cowardice began to whisper, "Why
tell her the whole truth at all? Why not take her through stages of
doubt, alarm, and, after all, leave a grain of hope till her child gets
so rooted in her heart that"--But conscience and good sense interrupted