"
"Does the girl want to blackmail me?" Sir Anthony thought testily.
The great doctor's old age was a lonely and a sordid one. He was
close on eighty now, but still to this day he received his patients
from ten to one, and closed his shrivelled hand with a clutch on
their guineas. For whom, nobody knew. Lady Merrick was long dead.
His daughters were well married, and he had quarrelled with their
husbands. Of his two younger sons, one had gone into the Fusiliers
and been speared at Suakim; the other had broken his neck on a
hunting-field in Warwickshire. The old man lived alone, and hugged
his money-bags. They were the one thing left for which he seemed
to retain any human affection.
So, when he read Dolly's card, being by nature suspicious, he felt
sure the child had called to see what she could get out of him.
But when he descended to the consulting-room with stern set face,
and saw a beautiful girl of seventeen awaiting him,--a tall
sunny-haired girl, with Alan's own smile and Alan's own eyes,--he
grew suddenly aware of an unexpected interest.
Pages:
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236