This night as she walked to her table her feet dragged a little. She was relieved to see Father Ryan was away for she could not have exerted herself to talk. She sat down, sympathized with Lizzie who looked pale, and glanced idly about the tables near her. A little way off a tweeded Englishman and another man eating with him returned her casual look. The Englishman did not particularly interest her, but the other one did for she saw it was Doctor Steele, of whom Bob had talked significantly.
The doctor was the best physician and surgeon on the river. He was also a man with a skeleton in the cupboard, only it was a skeleton that never stayed in the cupboard, but danced grimacing upon the public streets to the scandal of the passerby. He had a wife who was a pathological case or a vile old hag according as to whether the critic were scientific or emotional. Men often wondered why the doctor allowed her to live on with him, but he was of those who having once loved a woman recognized some obligation to care for her ever afterwards. In the hotel Mac saw to it that he had peace, for he once, in a notable passage of arms, had informed the lady in no uncertain terms that she could not set foot in his house. The doctor spent most of his leisure time there. He never drank to excess. His great diversion was poker which he played incessantly with anyone who came along, caring nothing whether he lost or won.
Valerie looked beyond him down the crowded room, and at once her eyes were held by a figure at a table on a line with her own at the other end. It was Mac’s table, and now for the first time she saw him there. She stared curiously till, raising his face, he caught her fixed gaze. She instantly looked away, and then had a funny feeling of self-consciousness as she felt his hard scrutiny. She went on eating without raising her head till someone came
