Page:HG Wells--secret places of the heart.djvu/294

282 Dr. Martineau was grave. “You would rather not receive her?”

“I don’t want to refuse her. I don’t want even to seem heartless. I understand, of course, she has a sort of claim.” She sobbed her reluctant admission. “I know it. I know.... There was much between them.”

Dr. Martineau pressed the limp hand upon the little tea table. “I understand, dear lady,” he said. “I understand. Now ... suppose I were to write to her and arrange—— I do not see that you need be put to the pain of meeting her. Suppose I were to meet her here myself?

“If you could!”

The doctor was quite prepared to save the lady any further distresses, no matter at what trouble to himself. “You are so good to me,” she said, letting the tears have their way with her.

“I am silly to cry,” she said, dabbing her eyes.

“We will get it over to-morrow,” he reassured her. “You need not think of it again.”

He took over Martin’s brief note to Lady Hardy and set to work by telegram to arrange for her visit. She was in London at her Chelsea flat and easily accessible. She was to come to the house at mid-day on the morrow, and to ask not for Lady Hardy but for him. He would stay by her while she was in the house, and it would be quite easy for Lady Hardy to keep herself and her daughter