"Perhaps to-day--perhaps in
a week. Here, you see, Science is sometimes baffled. I cannot say."
Lord Harry breathed deeply. "If the man is in so serious a condition,"
he said, "is it safe or prudent for us to be alone in the house without
a servant and without a nurse?"
"I was not born yesterday, my lord, I assure you," said the doctor in
his jocular way. "They have found me a nurse. She will come to-day. My
patient's life is, humanly speaking"--Lord Harry shuddered--"perfectly
safe until her arrival."
"Well--but she is a stranger. She must know whom she is nursing."
"Certainly. She will be told--I have already told her--that she is
going to nurse Lord Harry Norland, a young Irish gentleman. She is a
stranger. That is the most valuable quality she possesses. She is a
complete stranger. As for you, what are you? Anything you please. An
English gentleman staying with me under the melancholy circumstances of
his lordship's illness. What more natural? The English doctor is
staying with his patient, and the English friend is staying with the
doctor. When the insurance officer makes inquiries, as he is very
likely to do, the nurse will be invaluable for the evidence she will
give.
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