Understanding Nursing Research

Building an Evidence Based Practice

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Chapter 07: Understanding Theory and Research Frameworks
Grove: Understanding Nursing Research, 7th Edition

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. Which is true about a study framework?

a. It guides nurses in clinical practice.
b. It explains a portion of a theory.
c. It is one of the major ideas of a theory.
d. It is the underlying methodology used in research.
ANS: B
A study framework is a brief explanation of a theory or those portions of a theory that are
to be tested in a study. The knowledge gained from testing theories is used to guide
nursing practice.
Concepts are the major ideas contained in a theory. The framework is not the
methodology, which consists of sampling techniques, tools, and measures used to gather
and analyze data.

DIF: Cognitive level: Understanding (Comprehension)

2. Which statement is true about theory and qualitative studies?

a. Qualitative studies rely on conceptual frameworks and not on theory.
b. Qualitative studies are not based on theory.
c. Qualitative studies may be used to create theory.
d. Qualitative studies use theory in the same way as quantitative studies.
ANS: C
Qualitative studies may be based on a theory or may be designed to create a theory.
Qualitative studies do not rely on conceptual frameworks. Qualitative studies may be
based on theory. Quantitative studies are designed to test the components of a theory,
while qualitative studies may merely be based on or seek to create a theory.

DIF: Cognitive level: Understanding (Comprehension)

3. A researcher is studying how anxiety affects coping with chronic disease and theorizes
that measures to reduce anxiety will improve subjects’ ability to cope with day-to-day
demands of self-care. In this example, anxiety and coping are
a. assumptions.
b. concepts.
c. philosophies.
d. theories.
ANS: B
Concepts are terms that abstractly describe and name an object, idea, experience, or
phenomenon and are defined in specific ways to present the ideas relevant to a theory.
Assumptions are statements in a philosophy or theory that are taken for granted or
considered to be true. Philosophies are rational intellectual explorations of truths or
principles and describe viewpoints on what reality is and which ethical ideas should guide
practice. Theories are sets of concepts that present a view of a phenomenon.
 DIF: Cognitive level: Applying (Application)

4. The building blocks for theory are

a. empirical testing.
b. concepts.
c. hypotheses.
d. models.
ANS: B
Concepts are terms that abstractly describe and name an object, idea, experience, or
phenomenon, thus providing it with a separate identity or meaning. Concepts are defined
in a particular way to present the ideas relevant to a theory. Empirical testing is a way of
gaining knowledge by means of direct and indirect observation or experience. A
hypothesis is the formal statement of the expected relationship(s) between two or more
variables in a specified population in a quantitative research study. Models are used to
express a theory or research framework using a diagram with the concepts and
relationships graphically displayed.

DIF: Cognitive level: Understanding (Comprehension)

5. When reviewing various theoretical frameworks, the nurse researcher identifies several
viewpoints about how nurses should engage with terminally ill patients. These viewpoints
represent
a. abstract ideas.
b. assumptions.
c. concrete ideas.
d. philosophies.
ANS: D
A philosophy is an idea that explores truths or principles and describes which ethical ideas
should guide practice. An abstract idea focuses on a general view of a phenomenon.
Assumptions are statements in a philosophy or theory that are taken for granted or
considered to be true. A concrete idea focuses on a particular instance.

DIF: Cognitive level: Applying (Application)

6. Which statement is true about research frameworks?

a. Every qualitative study has an implicit or explicit research framework.
b. Research frameworks for psychological studies are usually derived from
physiology, genetics, pathophysiology, and physics.
c. Research frameworks come from grand nursing theories.
d. A research framework is a concrete, logical structure of meaning.
ANS: C
 Research frameworks can come from grand nursing theories, middle range theories from
nursing and other professions, synthesis of concepts and relationships from more than one
theory, or syntheses of research findings. Every quantitative study has an implicit or
explicit framework. Frameworks for physiological studies are usually derived from
physiology, genetics, pathophysiology, and physics. A research framework is an abstract,
logical structure of meaning, such as a portion of a theory, which guides the development
of the study and enables the researcher to link the findings to nursing’s body of
knowledge.

DIF: Cognitive level: Understanding (Comprehension)

7. A nurse researcher develops a study to assist patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus to lose
weight by altering eating patterns. The researcher states, “Patients with type 2 diabetes
mellitus desire to control weight to gain better glycemic control.” This statement is a(n)
a. assumption.
b. concept.
c. philosophy.
d. theory.
ANS: A
Assumptions are statements in a philosophy or theory that are taken for granted or
considered to be true. Concepts are terms that abstractly describe and name an object, idea,
experience, or phenomenon and are defined in specific ways to present the ideas relevant
to a theory. Philosophies are rational intellectual explorations of truths or principles and
describe viewpoints on what reality is and which ethical ideas should guide practice.
Theories are sets of concepts that present a view of a phenomenon.

DIF: Cognitive level: Applying (Application)

8. A nurse researcher will measure the effects of infant and parent bonding on infant weight
gain in the first 6 months of life. The nurse will evaluate the number of times each day that
the parent holds the infant. This measure is an example of a(n)
a. abstract idea.
b. concept.
c. concrete idea.
d. phenomenon.
ANS: C
Concrete ideas refer to realities or actual instances, focusing on the particular and not the
general. An abstract idea is a general view of a phenomenon, such as parent/infant
bonding. A concept is a term that abstractly describes a phenomenon. A phenomenon is
the appearance or aspect of reality as it is experienced.

DIF: Cognitive level: Applying (Application)

9. When a nurse researcher develops a plan for conducting a quantitative study, the theory on
which the study is based is described as?
a. The framework
b. The assumption
c. The hypothesis
d. The purpose
 ANS: A
A research framework is a brief explanation of a theory or those portions of a theory that
are being used to guide a study or that will be tested in a study. An assumption is a
statement that is taken for granted or considered true, even though it has not been
scientifically tested. The hypothesis is a statement of predicted relationships between
variables or predicted outcomes. The purpose is a declarative statement of the overall
goals of the study.

DIF: Cognitive level: Understanding (Comprehension)

10. The nurse researcher plans to evaluate self-care and its effects on disease prevention. The
nurse identifies various health promotion activities—such as proper diet, exercise, and
hours of sleep per night—as components of self-care. In this example, “self-care” is a
a. concept.
b. construct.
c. theory.
d. variable.
ANS: A
A concept is more abstract than a variable and represents the name for an object or
phenomenon of interest. A concept is the most abstract element of all. A construct is a
concept that has been created for the study. A construct is a broader category or idea that
may encompass several concepts. Theories are sets of concepts that present a view of a
phenomenon. A variable is more specific than a concept and is variable and measurable.

DIF: Cognitive level: Applying (Application)

11. The nurse researcher plans to evaluate self-care and its effects on disease prevention. The
nurse identifies various health promotion activities—such as proper diet, exercise, and
hours of sleep per night—as components of self-care. In this example, “health promotion”
is a
a. concept.
b. construct.
c. theory.
d. variable.
ANS: B
A construct is a concept that has been created for the study. A construct is a broader
category or idea that may encompass several concepts. A concept is more abstract than a
variable and represents the name for an object or phenomenon of interest. A concept is the
most abstract element of all. Theories are sets of concepts that present a view of a
phenomenon. A variable is more specific than a concept and is variable and measurable.

DIF: Cognitive level: Applying (Application)

12. The nurse researcher plans to evaluate self-care and its effects on disease prevention. The
nurse identifies various health promotion activities—such as proper diet, exercise, and
hours of sleep per night—as components of self-care. In this example, “hours of sleep” is a
a. concept.
b. construct.
 c. theory.
d. variable.
ANS: D
A variable is more specific than a concept and is variable and measurable. A construct is a
concept that has been created for the study. A construct is a broader category or idea that
may encompass several concepts. A concept is more abstract than a variable and
represents the name for an object or phenomenon of interest. A concept is the most
abstract element of all. Theories are sets of concepts that present a view of a phenomenon.

DIF: Cognitive level: Applying (Application)

13. The nurse researcher plans to evaluate self-care and its effects on disease prevention. The
nurse identifies various health promotion activities—such as proper diet, exercise, and
hours of sleep per night—as components of self-care. In this example, “effects of self-care
on disease prevention” is a
a. concept.
b. construct.
c. theory.
d. variable.
ANS: C
Theories are sets of concepts that present a view of a phenomenon. A conceptual map
includes all the major concepts in a theory or framework. A concept is more abstract than
a variable and represents the name for an object or phenomenon of interest. A concept is
the most abstract element of all. A construct is a concept that has been created for the
study. A construct is a broader category or idea that may encompass several concepts. A
variable is more specific than a concept and is variable and measurable.

DIF: Cognitive level: Applying (Application)

14. Which is an important characteristic of a variable?

a. It is broad and encompasses several ideas.
b. It is constant from one instance to another.
c. It is less specific than a concept.
d. It is measurable and changeable.
ANS: D
A variable is more specific than a concept and is variable and measurable. Variables are
narrow in their definition. Variables vary from one instance to another. Variables are more
specific than are concepts.

DIF: Cognitive level: Understanding (Comprehension)

15. Which is true about a conceptual definition in a research study?

a. It defines how a concept can be manipulated in a study.
b. It describes how a concept may be measured in a study.
c. It is comprehensive and includes associative meanings.
d. It is more specific than a dictionary definition.
ANS: C
 A conceptual definition is more comprehensive than a denotative or dictionary definition
and includes associated meanings the word may have. The operational definition describes
how the concept may be manipulated in a study. The operational definition describes how
the concept may be measured in a study. A conceptual definition is more comprehensive
than a denotative or dictionary definition and includes associated meanings the word may
have.

DIF: Cognitive level: Understanding (Comprehension)

16. In a study about childhood obesity, the researcher discusses the concept of overweight in
terms of weight for height measures, body mass index (BMI), body image, self-esteem,
and social norms. When discussing body image, self-esteem, and social norms, the
researcher is describing the
a. conceptual definition.
b. dependent variable.
c. independent variable.
d. operational definition.
ANS: A
A conceptual definition is more comprehensive than a denotative or dictionary definition
and includes associated meanings the word may have. The dependent variable is a
measurable variable that is hypothesized to change because of manipulation or difference
in the independent variable. The independent variable is a measurable variable that is
manipulated by the researcher to observe possible changes in the dependent variable. The
operational definition describes how the concept may be measured or manipulated in a
study.

DIF: Cognitive level: Analyzing (Analysis)

17. In a study about childhood obesity, the researcher discusses the concept of overweight in
terms of weight for height measures, body mass index (BMI), body image, self-esteem,
and social norms. The researcher states that a BMI less than the 95th percentile represents
overweight. This statement is a(n)
a. conceptual definition.
b. dependent variable.
c. independent variable.
d. operational definition.
ANS: D
The operational definition describes how the concept may be measured or manipulated in
a study. A conceptual definition is more comprehensive than a denotative or dictionary
definition and includes associated meanings the word may have. The dependent variable is
a measurable variable that is hypothesized to change because of manipulation or change in
the independent variable. The independent variable is a measurable variable that is
manipulated by the researcher to observe possible changes in the dependent variable.

DIF: Cognitive level: Analyzing (Analysis)

18. A researcher discusses how endorphins released during aerobic exercise cause a
heightened sense of well-being in subjects. This discussion is a
a. conceptual definition.
 b. operational definition.
c. relational statement.
d. theoretical framework.
ANS: C
A relational statement clarifies the type of relationship that exists between concepts. A
conceptual definition is more comprehensive than a denotative or dictionary definition and
includes associated meanings the word may have. The operational definition describes
how the concept may be measured or manipulated in a study. A theoretical framework
describes abstract concepts and phenomena and is used to guide nurses in clinical practice.

DIF: Cognitive level: Analyzing (Analysis)

19. When a researcher analyzes data obtained from study variables for possible significant
relationships among these variables, the researcher is testing the
a. abstract ideas.
b. conceptual definitions.
c. relationship statements.
d. study assumptions.
ANS: C
A relational statement clarifies the type of relationship that exists between concepts. An
abstract idea focuses on a general view of a phenomenon. A conceptual definition is more
comprehensive than a denotative or dictionary definition and includes associated meanings
the word may have. It does not identify relationships. Assumptions are statements in a
philosophy or theory that are taken for granted or considered to be true.

DIF: Cognitive level: Analyzing (Analysis)

20. Which statement is true about the hypothesis in a research study?

a. It clearly identifies concepts.
b. It is written at a higher level of abstraction than a general proposition.
c. It is not testable.
d. It makes a statement about specific relationships among variables.
ANS: D
Hypotheses are written to be tested in a study and make predictions about the relationships
among variables. The hypothesis does not define concepts. The hypothesis is written at a
lower level of abstraction than a framework or proposition. Hypotheses are written to be
tested in a study and make predictions about the relationships among variables.

DIF: Cognitive level: Understanding (Comprehension)

21. Which nursing theorist developed a grand nursing theory?

a. Brennaman
b. Orem
c. Pender
d. Swanson
ANS: B
Orem’s theory is a grand nursing theory. Brennaman, Pender, and Swanson developed
middle range nursing theories.
 DIF: Cognitive level: Remembering (Knowledge)

22. A nurse researcher discusses a theory about the stigma of chronic illness in children and
describes aspects of chronic illness including aesthetic qualities, causes of the condition,
and concealability of the disease as dimensions of this stigma. In this case, “aesthetic
qualities, causes of the condition, and concealability of the disease” are
a. concepts.
b. constructs.
c. theories.
d. variables.
ANS: B
A construct is a concept that has been created for the study. A construct is a broader
category or idea that may encompass several concepts. A concept is more abstract than a
variable and represents the name for an object or phenomenon of interest. A concept is the
most abstract element of all. Theories are sets of concepts that present a view of a
phenomenon. A variable is more specific than a concept and is variable and measurable.

DIF: Cognitive level: Analyzing (Analysis)

23. The level of theory often derived from evidence-based guidelines is

a. grand theory.
b. grounded theory.
c. mid-range theory.
d. practice theory.
ANS: D
A specific type of mid-range theory is a prescriptive, or practice theory. These are often
derived from evidence-based guidelines and are specific to situations. A grand theory is an
abstract nursing theory. Grounded theory is theory derived from the analysis of data. A
mid-range theory is narrower in scope than a grand theory.

DIF: Cognitive level: Understanding (Comprehension)

24. Which nursing theorist developed a middle range theory for nursing?
a. Orem
b. King
c. Mishel
d. Rogers
ANS: C
Mishel’s theory is a middle range nursing theory. Orem, King, and Rogers developed
grand nursing theories.

DIF: Cognitive level: Remembering (Knowledge)

25. In the introduction to a study, the researcher explains why self-esteem is expected to affect
obesity. The explanation of this relationship represents which aspect of the study?
a. Concept
b. Construct
c. Framework
 d. Theory
ANS: C
A framework is an abstract, logical structure of meaning identifying how one variable is
expected to affect another. A concept is more abstract than a variable and represents the
name for an object or phenomenon of interest. A concept is the most abstract element of
all. A construct is a concept that has been created for the study. A construct is a broader
category or idea that may encompass several concepts. Theories are sets of concepts that
present a view of a phenomenon.

DIF: Cognitive level: Applying (Application)

26. Which will the researcher use to display the concepts and relationships in a theoretical
framework?
a. Construct
b. Graph
c. Model
d. Theory
ANS: C
A model is a diagram or map that graphically displays concepts and relationships in a
theory. A construct is a concept that has been created for the study. A construct is a
broader category or idea that may encompass several concepts. A graph may be used in a
model to depict variables. Theories are sets of concepts that present a view of a
phenomenon.

DIF: Cognitive level: Understanding (Comprehension)

27. The level of theory derived from the analysis of data is

a. grounded theory.
b. grand theory.
c. mid-range theory.
d. practice theory.
ANS: A
Grounded theory is theory derived from the analysis of data. A grand theory is an abstract
nursing theory. A mid-range theory is narrower in scope than a grand theory. A specific
type of mid-range theory is a prescriptive, or practice theory. These are often derived from
evidence-based guidelines and are specific to situations.

DIF: Cognitive level: Understanding (Comprehension)

MULTIPLE RESPONSE

1. Which statements would the nurse researcher recognize as being true when critically
appraising a framework? Select all that apply.
a. Critical appraising a framework requires the identification and evaluation of the
concepts, their definitions, and the statements linking the concepts.
b. Study findings should not be linked back to the research framework.
c. Researchers usually link the findings back to the framework and other literature in
the results section of the research report.
 d. Researchers must judge the adequacy of the linkages of concepts to variables,
measurement of research or dependent variables, and implementation of
independent variables.
e. The discussion section is where the critical appraisal guidelines are applied to
frameworks that were derived from a grand nursing theory.
ANS: A, D, E
Critical appraising a framework does require the identification and evaluation of the
concepts, their definitions, and the statements linking the concepts. It is important that the
researcher judge the adequacy of the linkages of concepts to variables, measurement of
research or dependent variables, and implementation of independent variables. The
discussion section is where the critical appraisal guidelines are applied to frameworks that
were derived from a grand nursing theory, middle range theory, tentative theory, and a
scientific (physiological) theory. The study findings should be linked back to the research
framework to determine its usefulness in describing reality. Researchers usually link the
findings back to the framework and other literature in the discussion section of the
research report.

DIF: Cognitive level: Understanding (Comprehension)

2. Which of the following are true statements about middle range theories? Select all that
apply.
a. They may emerge from a grounded theory study.
b. They are more abstract and wider in scope than grand nursing theories.
c. Practice theories are a type of middle range theories that are more specific.
d. Nurses providing patient care and nurse researchers find them less helpful.
e. They are sometimes called substantive theories.
ANS: A, C, E
Middle range theories may emerge from a grounded theory study, be deduced from a
grand nursing theory, or created through a synthesis of the literature on a particular topic.
Practice theories are a type of middle range theories that are more specific. They are
designed to propose specific approaches to particular nursing practice situations. They are
sometimes called substantive theories because they are closer to the substance of clinical
practice. Middle range theories are less abstract and narrower in scope than grand nursing
theories, but are more abstract than theories that apply to only a specific situation. Because
middle range theories are more closely linked to clinical practice and research than grand
nursing theories, nurses providing patient care and nurse researchers find them to be
helpful.

DIF: Cognitive level: Understanding (Comprehension)

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 “I’ve always wanted men about me, and I mean to have them.
You never heard me say a good word for a woman, and I never did
say one. I shouldn’t even of your wife. But I am Etta Stackpole, I tell
you. The world has got to give me what I want, for it can’t get on
without me. Your women might try to down me, but your men
wouldn’t allow it.”
Dudley Leicester murmured apologetically, feeling himself a
hypocrite: “Why should anyone want to down you?”
“The women would,” she answered. “If ever my name got into
the papers they’d manage it too. But that will never happen. You
know women are quite powerless until your name does get into the
papers. Mine never will; that’s as certain as eggs is eggs. And even
if it did, there’s half the hostesses in London would try to bolster me
up. Where would their dinners be—where would the Phyllis Trevors
be if they hadn’t me for an attraction? ...
“I’m telling you all this, Dudley,” she said, “just to show you what
you’ve missed. You’re a bit of a coward, Dudley Leicester, and you
threw me over in a panic. You’re subject to panics now, aren’t you—
about your liver and the like? But when you threw me over, Dudley, it
was the cowardliest thing you ever did.”
Walking at her side, now that she had repulsed him, Dudley
Leicester had the sensation of being deserted and cold. He had, too,
the impulse to offer her his arm again and the desire to come once
more within the circle of warmth and perfume that she threw out. The
quiet, black, deserted streets, with the gleam from lamps in the
shining black glass of windows, the sound of his footsteps—for her
tread was soundless, as if she moved without stepping—the cold,
the solitude, all these things and her deep-thrilled voice took him out
of himself, as if into some other plane. It was, perhaps, into a plane
of the past, for that long, early stage of his life cast again its feeling
over him. He tried to remember Pauline; but it was with a sense of
duty, and memory will not act at the bidding of duty.
No man, indeed, can serve two women—no man, at any rate,
who is essentially innocent, and who is essentially monogamous as
was Dudley Leicester.
 “... The cowardliest thing you ever did in your life,” he heard her
repeat, and it was as if in trying to remember Pauline, he were
committing a new treachery to Etta Stackpole.
“... For it wasn’t because you were afraid of my betraying you—
you knew I shouldn’t betray you—it was because you were afraid of
what the other women would say. You knew I should be justified in
my actions, but you were afraid of their appearance. You’re a
hypochondriac, Dudley Leicester. You had a panic. One day you will
have a panic, and it will pay you out for dropping me. It’ll do more
than pay you out. You think you’ve taken a snug sort of refuge in the
arms of a little wife who might be a nun out of a convent, but it’ll find
you.”
Dudley Leicester swore inwardly because there was an interval
of a sob in her rounded speech. He experienced impulses to protect,
to apologize, to comfort her. She became the only thing in the world.
“And it’s because you know how bitterly you wronged me,” she
continued, “that you behaved gloomily towards me. I wouldn’t have
spoken like this if you hadn’t been such an oaf at dinner, but it’s up to
me; you put it up to me and I’m doing it. If you’d played the game—if
you had pretended to be cordial, or even if you’d been really a little
sheepish—I might have spared you. But now you’ve got to see it
through....
“But no,” she added suddenly, “here endeth the first lesson. I
think you’ve had enough gruel....
“All the same,” she added as suddenly and quite gaily, “you did
call me a penguin in the last nice letter you wrote me.”
He was by now so far back into his past that he seemed to be
doing no more than “see Etta home”—as he had seen her home a
thousand times before. It only added to the reality of it that she had
suddenly reconciled herself to him after finally upbraiding him. For,
when they had been engaged, she had upbraided him as fiercely at
least a hundred times—after each of her desperate flirtations, when
he had been filled with gloom. And always—always—just as now,
she had contrived to put him in the wrong. Always after these
quarrels he had propitiated her with a little present of no value.
And suddenly he found himself thinking that next day he would
send her a bunch of jonquils!
He was, indeed, as innocent as a puppy; he was just “seeing
Etta home” again. And he had always seen her home before with
such an innocence of tender passion, that once more the tenderness
arose in him. It found its vent in his saying:
“You know you’ll catch cold if you let your hood fall back like
that.”
“Then put it up for me,” she said saucily.
Her hood had fallen on to her shoulders, and in the March night
her breasts gleamed. Both her hands were occupied with her skirts.
He trembled—as he had been used to tremble—when his hands
touched her warm and scented hair, whose filaments caressed his
wrists. In the light of a lamp her eyes gleamed mockingly.
“Do you remember the riddle with the rude answer?” she asked
suddenly, “about the hare. There was a hare in a pit, sixty feet deep,
and there was no way out, and a greyhound was let into it. How did
the hare escape. And the answer was: That’s the hare’s business.”
She had hooked herself on to his arm again.
“What’s that got to do with it?” he asked thinkingly.
“Oh,” she answered, “I was only thinking; it is the bare’s
business, you know. That means that you can’t really get away from
your past. It comes back again. Do you remember a French story
called ’Toutes les Amoureuses’? ... about a man who had hundreds
of adventures. And of each lady he kept a ribbon or a lock of hair, or
a shoe-buckle—some trifle. And once a year he used to lock his door
and take out these odds and ends—and remember—just remember!
Well, Mr. Dudley Leicester, that’s a good thing to do. It’s an act of
piety for one thing; it averts evil for another. It’s like touching for the
evil chance. If you’d done that for me—for my sake, because you
had a good slice of my life—if you had done it ... well! you’d not have
been so desperately unhappy now.”
“I’m not unhappy,” he said, and he spoke the truth.
“Aren’t you?” she mocked him. “Aren’t you?”
They were within a few steps of her door, almost opposite
where, black and silent, his own house awaited him—as if,
reproachfully, it gazed at him with darkened eyes. And suddenly she
burst into a carol, and with quickened steps she danced him
onwards:

“He called me a penguin, a penguin, a penguin;

He called me a penguin a long time ago!”

She sang it to the triumphant hit of “Voici le sabre!” And then

they were on her doorstep. She had her key in the latch, the door
went back into darkness.
“I’ll prove to you you called me that,” she said, and crouching
forward, as she had bent to open the door, she caught the end of his
sleeve and pulled him into the inner darkness. He could see nothing,
and the heavy door was closed behind him.
 PART II

AND suddenly, in the thick darkness, whirring as if it were a scream,

intermitted for a moment and again commencing, a little bell rang out
at Dudley Leicester’s elbow. As suddenly, but with a more gracious
diffusion, light welled down from above his head, and Etta Hudson’s
voice mingling with it:
“Stop that confounded thing! I don’t want all the servants in the
house to know you are here.”
She leaned over the white and ormolu banisters: the light
swinging over her head made a halo above her disordered hair; her
white shoulders gleamed.
“Stop it,” she said; “Don’t fumble so ridiculously. Don’t you know
how to take the thing off the hooks?”
She laughed at him derisively; her face disappeared as if she
were about to continue her upward journey. Then once more she
was looking down at him:
“Tell whoever it is,” she said, “that Sir William is in Paris and
Lady Hudson in bed. Say ’sir’ when you speak, and they’ll think it’s
the second footman, Moddle! Don’t you remember Moddle?” And
again she laughed, and her ascent of the stairs was marked by the
tips of her fingers, visible as if they were little white and creeping
mice.
Dudley Leicester put the receiver to his ear. A peremptory “Are
you 4,259 Mayfair?” made him suddenly afraid, as if a schoolmaster
had detected him in some crime. Hitherto he had had no feeling of
crime. It was as if he had merely existed in the tide of his senses. An
equally peremptory “Don’t go away” was succeeded by the words:
“Get down,” and then:
“Is that Sir William Hudson’s?”
Leicester answered—he had the words clearly fixed in his mind
—but already he was panting:
“Yes, but Sir William’s in Paris, and Lady Hudson in bed.” And
he did not omit to add “sir.”
Through his mind, quickened by his emotions of fear, there shot
the idea that now they must go away; that it was all over; that he was
very tired; that he must sit down and rest.
Then suddenly—still low, distinct, stealthy, and clear—the voice
of the invisible man asked:
“Isn’t that Dudley Leicester speaking?”
He answered “Yes,” and then with a sudden panic he hung the
receiver upon the hooks.
And Etta Hudson, descending the stair with the letter in her
hand, saw him sitting dishevelled and dejected, as if all his joints had
been broken, in the messenger-boy’s chair beside the heavy, dark
table.
He rose suddenly, exclaiming: “You’ve got me into this scrape;
you’ve got to get me out of it. What’s to be done?”
Standing on the bottom step of the stairs, she laughed at him,
and she laughed still more while she listened:
“How do I know who it was?” He poured forth disjointed
sentences. “I told you somebody would see us in Regent Street. It
might have been your husband, or some blackmailer. London’s full of
them. I can’t possibly ring them up again to ask who it was. Perhaps
they spoke from a call-office. What’s to be done? What in the name
of God is to be done?”
A certain concern and pity were visible in her eyes: she opened
her lips and was about to speak, when he exclaimed:
 “It would break Pauline’s heart. What’s to be done?”
The line of her brows hardened, and she uttered a hard little
laugh.
“Don’t you know,” she said; “why, my dear Dudley, the answer is:
’That’s the bare’s business.’”

His first action on awakening was always to stretch out his hand
for the letters that his silent man would have placed by his side, and
to glance at the clock on his dressing table to see how many hours
he had slept. And, indeed, next morning his first sensation was one
of bodily well-being and of satisfaction because the clock appeared
to inform him that he had slept for three hours longer than was his
habit. But with a slight feeling of uneasiness he remembered how
late he had been the night before, and stretching out his hand for the
letters, he heard a voice say:
“Are you 4,259 Mayfair?”
He had answered “What?” before he realized that this question
was nothing more than a very vivid recollection. But even when he
had assured himself that it was only a very vivid recollection, he lay
still and discovered that his heart was beating very quickly. And so
afraid was he that the motion of stretching out his arm would bring
again the voice to his ears, that he lay still, his hand stretched along
the counterpane. And suddenly he got up.
He opened one white-painted cupboard, then the other. Finally,
he went to the door of the room and peered out. His man,
expressionless, carrying over his arm a pair of trousers, and in one
hand a white letter crossed with blue, was slowly ascending the
staircase at the end of the corridor.
“You didn’t ask me a question,” Dudley Leicester said, “about
two minutes ago?”
Saunders said: “No, sir, I was answering the door to the
postman. This, sir.” And he held out the registered letter.
 It was as if Dudley Leicester recoiled from it. It bore Pauline’s
handwriting, a large, round, negligent scrawl.
“Did he ask our number?” Dudley inquired eagerly; and
Saunders, with as much of surprise as could come into his impassive
face, answered:
“Why, no, sir; he’s the regular man.”
“Our telephone number, I mean,” Dudley Leicester said.
Saunders was by this time in the room, passing through it to the
door of the bath-cabinet.
“As a matter of fact, sir,” he said, “the only thing he asked was
whether Mrs. Leicester’s mother was any better.”
“It’s very odd,” Dudley Leicester answered. And with Saunders
splashing the water in the white bath-cabinet, with a touch of sun
lighting up the two white rooms—in the midst of these homely and
familiar sounds and reflections, fear suddenly seized Dudley
Leicester. His wife’s letter frightened him; when there fell from it a
bracelet, he started as he had never in his life started at a stumble of
his horse. He imagined that it was a sort of symbol, a sending back
of his gifts. And even when he had read her large, sparse words, and
discovered that the curb chain of the bracelet was broken, and
Pauline desired him to take it to the jeweller’s to be repaired—even
then the momentary relief gave way to a host of other fears. For
Dudley Leicester had entered into a world of dread.

II

HE appeared to have become friendless and utterly solitary. Even

his man Saunders, to whom he had been attached as he had been
attached to his comfortable furniture and his comfortable boots,
seemed to him now to be grown reserved, frigid, disapproving. He
imagined that Saunders had a threatening aspect. Fear suddenly
possessed his heart when he perceived, seated in the breakfast-
room, well forward in a deep saddle-bag chair, with Peter the
dachshund between his speckless boots, Robert Grimshaw.
“What have you come for?” Leicester asked; “what’s it about?”
Robert Grimshaw raised his dark, seal-like eyes, and Leicester
seemed to read in them reproof, judgment, condemnation.
“To leave Peter with the excellent Saunders,” Robert Grimshaw
said; “I can’t take him to Athens.”
“Oh, you’re going to Athens?” Dudley Leicester said, and oddly
it came into his mind that he was glad Grimshaw was going to
Athens. He wanted Grimshaw not to hear of his disgrace.
For although Grimshaw had frequently spoken dispassionately
of unfaithful husbands—dispassionately, as if he were registering
facts that are neither here nor there, facts that are the mere
inevitabilities of life, he had the certainty, the absolute certainty, that
Grimshaw would condemn him.
“I start at one, you know,” Grimshaw said. “You’re not looking
very bright.”
Dudley Leicester sat down before his coffeepot; his hand, with
an automatic motion, went out to the copy of the Times, which was
propped between the toast-rack and the cream-jug; but it suddenly
shot back again, and with a hang-dog look in his eyes he said:
“How long does it take things to get into the newspapers?”
It was part of his sensation of loneliness and of fear that he
could not any more consult Robert Grimshaw. He might ask him
questions, but he couldn’t tell just what question wouldn’t give him
away. Robert Grimshaw had so many knowledges; so that when
Robert Grimshaw asked:
“What sort of things?” he answered, with a little fluster of hurry
and irritation:
“Oh, any sort of thing; the things they do print.”
Grimshaw raised his eyelids.
 “I don’t see how I can be expected to know about newspapers,”
he said; “but I fancy they get printed about half-past one in the
morning—about half-past one. I shouldn’t imagine it was any earlier.”
At this repetition, at this emphasis of the hour at which the
telephone-bell had rung, Dudley seized and opened his paper with a
sudden eagerness. He had the conviction that it must have been a
newspaper reporter who had rung him up, and that by now the
matter might well’be in print. He looked feverishly under the heading
of Court and Society, and under the heading of Police Court and
Divorce Court. But his eye could do no more than travel over the
spaces of print and speckled paper, as if it had been a patterned
fabric. And suddenly he asked:
“Do you suppose the servants spy upon us?”
“Really, my dear fellow,” Grimshaw said, “why can’t you buy an
encyclopædia of out-of-the-way things?”
“But do you?” Dudley insisted.
“I don’t know,” Grimshaw speculated. “Some do; some don’t. It
depends on their characters; on whether it would be worth their
whiles. I’ve, never heard of an authentic case of a servant
blackmailing a master, but, of course, one would not hear of it.”
“But your man Jervis? Or Saunders, now? They talk about us,
for instance, don’t they?”
Grimshaw considered the matter with his eyes half closed.
“Jervis? Saunders?” he said. “Yes, I suppose they do. I hope
they do, for we’re their life’s work, and if they take the interest in us
that I presume they do, they ought to talk about us. I imagine Jervis
discusses me now and then with his wife. I should think he does it
affectionately, on the whole. I don’t know.... It’s one of the few things
that are as mysterious as life and death. There are these people
always about us—all day, all night. They’ve got eyes—I suppose
they use them. But we’ve got no means of knowing what they think
or what they know. I do know a lot—about other people. Jervis gives
me the news while he’s shaving me. So I suppose I know nearly all
he knows about other people. He knows I like to know, and it’s part
of what he’s paid for. But as for what he knows about me”—
Grimshaw waved his hand as if he were flicking cigarette-ash off his
knee—“why, I know nothing about that. We never can; we never
shall. But we never can and we never shall know what anyone in the
world knows of us and thinks. You’ll find, as you go on, that you’ll
never really know all that Pauline thinks of you—not quite all. I shall
never really know all that you think about me. I suppose we’re as
intimate as men can be in this world, aren’t we? Well! You’re
probably at this very moment thinking something or other about me.
Perhaps I’m boring you or irritating you, but you won’t tell me. And,”
he added, fixing his eyes gently and amiably upon Dudley
Leicester’s face, “you’ll never know all I know about you.”
Dudley Leicester had become filled with an impetuous dread
that he had “given himself away” by his questions.
“Why I asked,” he said, and his eyes avoided Grimshaw’s
glance, “is that the postman seems to have been talking to Saunders
about Pauline.”
Grimshaw started suddenly forward in his seat.
“Oh,” Dudley Leicester said, “it’s only that I asked Saunders
about a voice I had heard, and he said it was the postman asking
when Pauline would be home, or how her mother was. Something of
that soft. It seems rather impertinent of these chaps.”
“It seems to me rather nice,” Grimshaw said, “if you look at it
without prejudice. We may as well suppose that both Saunders and
the postman are decent fellows, and Pauline is so noticeable and so
nice that it’s only natural that an old servant and an old postman
should be concerned if she’s upset. After all, you know we do live in
a village, and if we don’t do any harm, I don’t see why we should
take it for granted that these people crab us. You’ve got to be talked
about, old man, simply because you’re there. Everyone is talked
about—all of us.”
Dudley Leicester said, with a sudden and hot gloom:
“There’s nothing about me to talk about. I’ve never wanted to be
an interesting chap, and I never have been. I shall give Saunders the
sack and report the postman.”
“Oh, come now,” Grimshaw said. “I know it’s in human nature to
dislike the idea of being talked about. It used to give me the creeps
to think that all around me in the thousands and thousands of people
that one knows, every one of them probably says something of me.
But, after all, it all averages out. Some say good, no doubt, and
some dislike me, and say it. I don’t suppose I can go out of my door
without the baker at the corner knowing it. I am spied upon by all the
policemen in the streets round about. No doubt half the shop-
assistants in Bond Street snigger at the fact that I help two or three
women to choose their dresses and their bracelets, and sometimes
pay their bills, but what does it all amount to?”
“Hell,” Dudley Leicester said—“sheer hell!”
“Oh, well, eat your breakfast,” Grimshaw replied. “You can’t
change it. You’ll get used to it in time. Or if you don’t get used to it in
time, I’ll tell you what to do. I’ll tell you what I do. People have got to
talk about you. If they don’t know things they’ll invent lies. Tell ’em
the truth. The truth is never very bad. There’s my man Jervis. I’ve
said to him: ‘You can open all my letters; you can examine my pass-
book at the bank; you can pay my bills; you’re at liberty to read my
diary of engagements; you can make what use you like of the
information. If I tried to stop you doing these things, I know I should
never succeed, because you chaps are always on the watch, and
we’re bound to nod at times. Only I should advise you, Jervis,’ I said,
‘to stick to truth in what you say about me. It don’t matter a tinker’s
curse to me what you do say, but you’ll get a greater reputation for
reliability if what you say always proves true.’ So there I am. Of
course it’s an advantage to have no vices in particular, and to have
committed no crimes. But I don’t think it would make much difference
to me, and it adds immensely to the agreeableness of life not to want
to conceal things. You can’t conceal things. It’s a perpetual strain. Do
what you want, and take what you get for doing it. It’s the only way to
live. If you tell the truth people may invent a bit, but they won’t invent
so much. When you were married, I told Hartley Jenx that if you
hadn’t married Pauline, I should have. Everybody’s pretty well
acquainted with that fact. If I’d tried to conceal it, people would have
been talking about my coming here three times a week. As it is, it is
open as the day. Nobody talks. I know they don’t. Jervis would have
told me. He’d be sure to know.”
“What’s all that got to do with it?” Dudley Leicester said with a
suspicious exasperation.
Robert Grimshaw picked up on to his arm Peter the dachshund,
that all the while had remained immobile, save for an occasional
blinking of the eyelids, between his feet. Holding the dog over his
arm, he said:
“Now, I am going to confide Peter to Saunders. That was the
arrangement I made with Pauline, so that he shouldn’t worry you.
But you can take this as a general principle: ‘Let your servants know
all that there is to know about you, but if you find they try to take
advantage of you—if they try to blackmail you—hit them fair and
square between the jaws.’ Yes, I mean it, literally and physically.
You’ve got mettle enough behind your fists.”
Robert Grimshaw desired to speak to Saunders in private,
because of one of those small financial transactions which the
decencies require should not be visible between guest and master
and man. He wanted, too, to give directions as to the feeding of
Peter during his absence; but no sooner had the door closed upon
him than Dudley Leicester made after him to open it. For he was
seized by a sudden and painful aversion from the thought that
Saunders should be in private communication with Robert
Grimshaw. He strongly suspected that Saunders knew where he had
spent those hours of the night—Saunders, with his mysterious air of
respectful reserve—and it drove him nearly crazy to think that
Saunders should communicate this fact to Robert Grimshaw. It
wasn’t that he feared Grimshaw’s telling tales to Pauline. It was that
he dreaded the reproach that he imagined would come into Robert
Grimshaw’s dark eyes; for he knew how devoted Grimshaw was to
his wife. He had his hand upon the handle of the door; he withdrew it
at the thought that interference would appear ridiculous. He paused
and stood irresolute, his face distorted by fear, and his body bent as
if with agony. Suddenly he threw the door open, and, striding out,
came into collision with Ellida Langham. Later, the feeling of relief
that he had not uttered what was just on the tip of his tongue—the
words: “Has Pauline sent you? How did she hear it?”—the feeling of
relief that he had not uttered these words let him know how
overwhelming his panic had been. Ellida, however, was bursting into
voluble speech:
“Katya’s coming back!” she said. “Katya’s coming back. She’s
on one of the slow ships from Philadelphia, with an American. She
may be here any day, and I did so want to let Toto know before he
started for Athens.”
She was still in black furs, with a black veil, but her cheeks were
more flushed than usual, and her eyes danced.
“Think of Katya’s coming back!” she said, but her lower lip
suddenly quivered. “Toto hasn’t started?” she asked. “His train
doesn’t go till one.”
She regarded Dudley Leicester with something of impatience.
She said afterwards that she had never before noticed he was
goggle-eyed. He stood, enormously tall, his legs very wide apart,
gazing at her with his mouth open.
“I’m not a ghost, man,” she said at last. “What’s wrong with
you?”
Dudley Leicester raised his hand to his straw-coloured
moustache.
“Grimshaw’s talking to Saunders,” he said.
Ellida looked at him incredulously. But eventually her face
cleared. “Oh, about Peter?” she said. “I was beginning to think you’d
got an inquest in the house....”
And suddenly she touched Dudley Leicester vigorously on the
arm.
“Come! Get him up from wherever he is,” she said, with a good-
humoured vivacity. “Katya’s more important than Peter, and I’ve got
the largest number of things to tell him in the shortest possible time.”
 Dudley Leicester, in his dull bewilderment, was veering round
upon his straddled legs, gazing first helplessly at the bell beside the
chimney-piece and then at the door. Even if he hadn’t been already
bewildered, he would not have known very well how properly to
summon a friend who was talking to a servant of his own. Did you
ring, or did you go to the top of the stairs and call? But his
bewilderment was cut short by the appearance of Grimshaw himself,
and at the sight of his serene face just lighting up with a little smile of
astonishment and pleasure, Dudley Leicester’s panic vanished as
suddenly and irrationally as it had fallen on him. He even smiled,
while Ellida Langham said, with a sharp, quick little sound, “Boo!” in
answer to Robert’s exclamation of “Ellida!” But Grimshaw took
himself up quickly, and said:
“Ah! I know you’ve some final message for me, and you went
round to my rooms, and Jervis told you I’d come on here.”
She was quite a different Ellida from the plaintive lady in the
Park. Her lips were parted, her eyes sparkled, and she held her arms
behind her back as if she were expecting a dog to jump up at her.
“Ah! You think you know everything, Mr. Toto,” she said; “but, je
vous le donne en mille, you don’t know what I’ve come to tell you.”
“I know it’s one of two things,” Grimshaw said, smiling: “Either
Kitty’s spoken, or else Katya has.”
“Oh, she’s more than spoken,” Ellida cried out. “She’s coming. In
three days she’ll be here.”
Robert Grimshaw reflected for a long time.
“You did what you said you would?” he asked at last.
“I did what I said I would,” she repeated. “I appealed to her
sense of duty. I said that, if she was so good in the treatment of
obscure nervous diseases—and you know the head-doctor-man
over there said she was as good a man as himself—it was
manifestly her duty, her duty to mother’s memory, to take charge of
mother’s only descendant—that’s Kitty—and this is her answer:
She’s coming—she’s coming with a patient from Philadelphia.... Oh!
she’s coming. Katya’s coming again. Won’t it make everything
different?”
She pulled Robert Grimshaw by the buttonhole over to the
window, and began to speak in little sibilant whispers.
And it came into Dudley Leicester’s head to think that, if Katya
Lascarides was so splendid in the treatment of difficult cases, she
might possibly be able to advise him as to some of the obscure
maladies from which he was certain that he suffered.
Robert Grimshaw was departing that day for the city of Athens,
where for two months he was to attend to the business of the firm of
Peter Lascarides and Co., of which he was a director.

III

WITH her eyes on the grey pinnacles of the Scillies, Katya

Lascarides rose from her deck-chair, saying to Mrs. Van Husum:
“I am going to send a marconigram.”
Mrs. Van Husum gave a dismal but a healthy groan. It pleased
Katya, since it took the place of the passionately pleading “Oh, don’t
leave me—don’t leave me!” to which Katya Lascarides had been
accustomed for many months. It meant that her patient had arrived
at a state of mind so normal that she was perfectly fit to be left to the
unaided care of her son and daughter-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Clement
P. Van Husum junior, who resided at Wantage. Indeed, Mrs. Van
Husum’s groan was far more the sound of an elderly lady recovering
from the troubles of sea-sickness than that which would be made by
a neurotic sufferer from the dread of solitude.
Katya, with her tranquil and decided step, moved along the deck
and descended the companion forward to where the Marconi
installation sent out its cracklings from a little cabin surrounded by
what appeared a schemeless jumble of rusty capstans and brown
cables. With the same air of pensive introspection and tranquil
resolve she leaned upon the little slab that was devoted to the
sender of telegrams, and wrote to her sister Ellida, using the
telegraphic address of her husband’s office:
“Shall reach London noon to-morrow. Beg you not to
meet ship or to come to hotel for three days. Writing
conditions.”
And, having handed in this message through the little shutter to
the invisible operator, she threaded her way with the same
pensiveness between the capstans and the ropes up the companion
and on to the upper deck where, having adjusted the rugs around
the dozing figure of Mrs. Van Husum in her deck-chair, she paused,
with her grey eyes looking out across the grey sea, to consider the
purplish islands, fringed with white, the swirls of foam in the greeny
and slate-coloured waters, the white lighthouse, and a spray-beaten
tramp-steamer that, rolling, undulating, and battling through the long
swell between them and the Scillies, was making its good departure
for Mexico.
Tall, rounded, in excellent condition, with slow but decided
actions, with that naturally pale complexion and clean-cut run of the
cheek-bone from chin to ear which came to her with her Greek
parentage, Katya Lascarides was reflecting upon the terms of her
letter to her sister.
From the tranquillity of her motions and the determination of her
few words, she was to be set down as a person, passionless,
practical, and without tides of emotion. But her eyes, as she leant
gazing out to landwards, changed colour by imperceptible shades,
ranging from grey to the slaty-blue colour of the sea itself, and her
brows from minute to minute, following the course of her thoughts,
curved slightly upwards above eyes that expressed tender
reminiscences, and gradually straightened themselves out until, like
a delicate bar below her forehead, they denoted, stretched and
tensile, the fact that she had arrived at an inflexible determination.
In the small and dusky reading-room, that never contained any
readers, she set herself slowly to write.
 “MY DEAR ELLIDA” (her letter ran),
“I have again carefully read through your report of
what Dr. Tressider says of Kitty’s case, and I see no
reason why the dear child should not find it in her to speak
within a few weeks—within a month even. Dr. Tressider is
certain that there is no functional trouble of the brain or the
vocal organs. Then there is just the word for it—obstinacy.
The case is not so very uncommon: the position must be
regarded psychologically rather than by a pathologist. On
the facts given me I should say that your little Kitty is
indulging in a sort of dramatic display. You say that she is
of an affectionate, even of a jealously affectionate,
disposition. Very well, then; I take it that she desires to be
fussed over. Children are very inscrutable. Who can tell,
then, whether she has not found out (I do not mean to say
that she is aware of a motive, as you or I might be)—found
out that the way to be fussed over is just not to speak. For
you, I should say, it would be almost impossible to cure
her, simply because you are the person most worried by
her silence. And similarly with the nurses, who say to her:
‘Do say so-and-so, there’s a little pet!’ The desire to be
made a fuss of, to occupy the whole mind of some person
or of many persons, to cause one’s power to be felt—are
these not motives very human? Is there any necessity to
go to the length of putting them down to mental
aberration?”

Katya Lascarides had finished her sheet of paper. She blotted it

with deliberate motions, and, leaving it face downwards, she placed
her arms upon the table, and, her eyelashes drooping over her
distant eyes, she looked reflectively at her long and pointed hands.
At last she took up her pen and wrote upon a fresh sheet in her
large, firm hand:

“I am diagnosing my own case!”

 Serious and unsmiling she looked at the words; then, as if she
were scrawling idly, she wrote:
“Robert.”
Beneath that:
“Robert Hurstlett Grimshaw.”
And then:
“σας ἀγαπω!”
She heaved a sigh of voluptuous pleasure, and began to write,
“I love you! I love you! I love you ...” letting the words be
accompanied by deep breaths of solace, as a very thirsty child may
drink. And, having written the page full all but a tiny corner at the
bottom, she inscribed very swiftly and in minute letters:
“Oh, Robert Grimshaw, why don’t you bring me to my knees?”
She heaved one great sigh of desire, and, leaning back in her
chair, she looked at her words, smiling, and her lips moving. Then,
as it were, she straightened herself out; she took up the paper to tear
it into minute and regular fragments, and, rising, precise and tranquil,
she walked out of the doorway to the rail of the ship. She opened her
hand, and a little flock of white squares whirled, with the swiftness of
swallows, into the discoloured wake. One piece that stuck for a
moment to her forefinger showed the words:
“My own case!”
She turned, appearing engrossed and full of reserve, again to
her writing.

“No,” she commenced, “do not put down this form of obstinacy
to mental aberration. It is rather to be considered as a manifestation
of passion. You say that Kitty is not of a passionate disposition. I
imagine it may prove that she is actually of a disposition passionate
in the extreme. But all her passion is centred in that one desire—the
desire to excite concern. The cure for this is not medical; it is merely
practical. Nerve treatment will not cure it, nor solicitude, but feigned
indifference. You will not touch the spot with dieting; perhaps by ...
But there, I will not explain my methods to you, old Ellida. I
discussed Kitty’s case, as you set it forth, very fully with the chief in
Philadelphia, and between us we arrived at certain conclusions. I
won’t tell you what they were, not because I want to observe a
professional reticence, but simply so that, in case one treatment
fails, you may not be in agonies of disappointment and fear. I haven’t
myself much fear of non-success if things are as you and Dr.
Tressider say. After all, weren’t we both of us as kiddies celebrated
for fits of irrational obstinacy? Don’t you remember how one day you
refused to eat if Calton, the cat, was in the dining-room? And didn’t
you keep that up for days and days and days? Yet you were awfully
fond of Calton.... Yes; I think I can change Kitty for you, but upon one
condition—that you never plead for Robert Grimshaw, that you never
mention his name to me. Quite apart from any other motive of mine
—and you know that I consider mother’s example before anything
else in the world—if he will not make this sacrifice for me he does
not love me. I do not mean to say that you are to forbid him your
house, for I understand he dines with you every other day. His
pleadings I am prepared to deal with, but not yours, for in you they
savour of disrespect for mother. Indeed, disrespect or no disrespect,
I will not have it. If you agree to this, come to our hotel as soon as
you have read it. If you disagree—if you won’t, dear, make me a
solemn promise—leave me three days in which to make a choice out
of the five patients who wish to have me in London, and then come
and see me, bringing Kitty.
“Not a word, you understand—not one single word!
“On that dreadful day when Robert told us that father had died
intestate and that other—I was going to add ‘horror,’ but, since it was
mother’s doing, she did it, and so it must have been right—when he
told us that we were penniless and illegitimate, I saw in a flash my
duty to mother’s memory. I have stuck to it, and I will stick to it.
Robert must give in, or I will never play the part of wife to him.”
She folded her letter into the stamped envelope, and, having
dropped it deliberately into the ship’s letter-box, she rejoined Mrs.